Since 1993, the globe has seen the stock markets of 11 different countries lead the yearly performance race, yet not once during that time has the United States ended up in the winner’s circle. In fact, more often than not, the U.S. market ends up in the bottom half of the world’s annual results.

Point being, if you’re focusing strictly on the U.S. market, then you’re needlessly crimping your total returns.

So if you want to spice up your portfolio with some international holdings, here are three stocks that offer a nice combination of lower risk and higher potential than their American counterparts. All three trade as American Depository Receipts (or ADRs) — which are the easiest way for U.S. investors to buy foreign stocks — on U.S. exchanges.

1. Cott Corp. (NYSE: COT) certainly isn’t a household name to most Americans; it’s barely even a household name in its home country of Canada. Yet, there’s a very good chance you and your neighbors to the north are drinking the company’s beverages without even realizing it.

Cott is a bottler of several store-brand and private-label sodas, juices and flavored waters. Its drinks are distributed all over North America and parts of the United Kingdom, under names ranging from Red Rai to Stars and Stripes to Vess, just to name a few.

No, it’s not exactly an earth-shattering business, but the goal of investing isn’t to impress — it’s to make money, which Cott seems to be doing quite well again.

The company took its lumps like everyone else in 2007 and 2008, dipping into the red in the latter of those two years when the recession and currency woes clamped down on profits. Through a series of cost-cutting measures and a return to focusing on its core business of store-brand bottling though, 2009 ended up being the company’s second-most profitable year ever. It earned $0.79 per share that year, compared with peak earnings of $1.09 in 2004. At last look, 2010 was on pace to be at least as strong as the previous year, now that store-brand sodas are en vogue.

2. The China investment craze has been running hot and cold since 2007, but the underlying reason the world’s so interested in China now hasn’t changed one bit. The country is entering its age of consumerism, as incomes are rising to the point where discretionary spending is the norm rather than an exception. While retailers and electronics manufacturers are traditionally seen as the key beneficiaries of this new era, some “nontraditional” products and services are benefiting as well.

That’s good news for Cninsure Inc. (Nasdaq: CISG), one of China’s larger life, property, and casualty insurance brokers.

On March 1, the company reported fourth-quarter revenue that fell short of expectations and dialed back its first quarter 2011 profit outlook against a backdrop of higher expenses. Yet, there’s still a clear trend of earnings growth in place here. The company earned $0.61 per share in 2008, $0.95 in 2009 and $1.29 a share in 2010. For 2011, analysts are still looking for profits of $1.36 per share despite the lowered first quarter guidance.

Longer-term, Cninsure is forecasted to grow its bottom line by more than 30% in the next three to five years, compared with income growth of only 9.3% for domestic large cap companies. Revenue has been growing just as firmly as earnings have and is still expected to swell by 40% this year. .

Again, at the heart of both impressive growth rates is the expanding Chinese middle class.

3. And finally, Ireland’s debt woes and subsequent austerity measures have unfortunately overshadowed not just one of its great companies, but one of the world’s great companies — Covidien Public Ltd. Co. (NYSE: COV). This medical instrument and supply outfit barely even flinched when the rest of the world was at the mercy of 2008’s meltdown, and it actually posted record-level sales and income in 2010. But 2011 is expected to be even better, with the company expected to post earnings of $3.75 a share, compared with $3.18 the previous year on the heels of its newly-approved Fentanyl trandermal patch, a new LigaSure (surgical-cutting) device and new plaque-excision system.

Yet Covidien still can’t get any respect. The company has beaten earnings estimates — by a lot — in six of the last seven quarters. Given the long and reliable history of low estimates from analysts, we can reasonably assume this year’s projected bottom line increase of 10.9% is also too low. This potential upside surprise and play right into the hands of value-seekers, especially with Covidien only being priced at 13.3 times this year’s expected earnings. The industry norm is a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 18.3, which suggests the stock could be underpriced by nearly 30%.

Action to take –> Yes, there are probably sexier foreign investments than these three companies. But there are very few stocks anywhere in the world — domestic or abroad — with a business model and a target market as reliable as those of Cott, Cninsure, and Covidien. You’ll want to do a little more homework to learn about these companies more before buying, but from a pure risk-versus-reward perspective, these three names make a great core position of international stocks with as much geographical diversity as sector diversity.

P.S. — I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but a 20-year energy agreement between the United States and Russia is about to expire. The problem is, this deal supplies 10% of America’s electricity. When the Russians refuse to renew the agreement, the U.S. will face an entirely new kind of energy crisis. This disruption could send a handful of energy stocks through the roof. Keep reading…