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Title: The Age of Terror: America and the World After September 11 by Strobe Talbott, Nayan Chanda ISBN: 0-465-08357-9 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 17 December, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good outline of terror-related issues despite rush to print
Comment: The Age Of Terror should be a disaster. Eight academicians and career bureaucrats, thrown together in the immediate aftermath of September 11th, ruminate on issues related to that momentous event. Against all odds, though, this hurried collaboration produced some solid work.
Some topics are inspired (how to foster cooperation between the private sector and the military establishment) and others are predictable (foreign policy, civil liberties, and radical Islam). For the most part the authors showed great prescience in their outline of the issues that would confront the United States. The weakest chapter, ironically, covers the most obvious problem: the tension between national security and civil liberties. Conversely, the best essay is the most complex: how to harness American ingenuity to devise new technologies to confront terrorists. Proximity to the attacks did not really effect the quality of the work; those essays that are good would have been so regardless of when written, and the few that fall short would not have improved with time for reflection. The authors all are experts in their respective fields, and if anything this book shows that America's elites were not as caught off guard as it seemed in the first days after the Pentagon and World Trade Center were attacked.
This book is a good overview of terror-related policy issues and at times provides a surprising degree of depth. That it worked at all, let alone holds up, is a pleasant surprise and a tribute to the editors and contributors.
Rating: 5
Summary: Provocative, informative, entertaining book on 9/11
Comment: This collection of essays--written, compiled, and published within just a few weeks of 9/11-- easily could have fallen into the trap of being just another slap-dash, knee-jerk, sloppily-put-together "instant book." And, as with any collection of essays by different authors, The Age of Terror: America and the World After September 11 could have ended up being wildly uneven in terms of quality, theme, and style. Fortunately, none of this happened. Instead, the book's two editors - former Clinton Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Nayan Chanda-have assembled a fine collection of essays by leading experts in various fields (history, law, political science, molecular biology, diplomacy) into a top-notch, thought provoking, fascinating look at the world after 9/11. As explained on the book's jacket, the premise here is that "the unforgivable is not necessarily incomprehensible or inexplicable." After reading this book, the events of 9/11 should be both more comprehensible and more explicable to just about any reader.
Among the more provocative essays in The Age of Terror" is the one by Charles Hill, a former aide to Secretaries of State Kissinger, Haig, and Shultz. Hill's chapter, entitled "A Herculean Task: The Myth and Reality of Arab Terrorism," demolishes what Hill considers to be a series of "deceptive and dangerous myths" that have sprung up following 9/11: that "America faces an entirely new kind of challenge;" that "we brought this on ourselves;" that there are "legitimate grievances about poverty and oppression" that "leave those afflicted with no choice but to take up terrorism;" and that "nothing we do can be effective against such a threat." Even more provocatively, Hill blasts "the miserable state of politics and governance" in the Arab world, plus the tendency of Arabs to blame all their problems on warped conspiracy theories (i.e, the Mossad was behind 9/11) and bluntly states: "Every regime of the Arab-Islamic world has proved a failure. Not one has proved able to provide its people with realistic hope for a free and prosperous future." On the contrary, Hill argues that Arab regimes have intentionally served up a "combination of internal oppression and propaganda to generate rage against external enemies." In this soil, according to Hill, " religiously inflamed terrorists take root" and thrive. Hill then concludes his fascinating, thought-provoking essay with a classic literary analogy, comparing the current fight against terrorism to the "twelve labors of Hercules." And just as Hercules required "intelligence," "patience," "fortitude" "the willingness and ability to undertake diverse and difficult tasks," "methods other than direct, main force" at times; the assistance of allies, and continued respect for "properly constituted laws and procedures of justice" to successfully complete his labors, so shall we in our current struggle. Hill leaves us with fighting words fit for Hercules: "those who commit acts of war will be warred upon until they surrender or die."
[....]
Paul Kennedy's essay, "Maintaining American Power: From Injury to Recovery," to this reviewer's mind is somewhat repetitive of earlier arguments he has made, particularly in his best-known book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Kennedy stumbles early on when he states unequivocally that 9/11 has led "not just to short-term, military responses...but also to a re-examination of many aspects of the American way of life, of America's attitude toward other countries." Huh? It has? Where? Not in the Bush Administration, that's for sure! After that, Kennedy hits his stride, arguing forcefully (as he has in the past) that the U.S. needs to utilize and strengthen all of the elements of its power: military/industrial, economic, and diplomatic. Kennedy sharply criticizes the Bush Administration's strong tendency towards unilateralism and apparent disrespect for international organizations and alliances, while arguing for an essentially realpolitik "smart diplomacy." Finally, Kennedy warns of the "danger of overreaction and overextension" to the "dreadful and unjustified shock" of 9/11, and prophecizes that the U.S. may find that the 21st century is "even more tricky to navigate, and even more turbulent, than...the century just gone."
Aside from the Hill, Ferguson, and Kennedy essays, other chapters in The Age of Terror ably cover such topics as: the role of science (and strengthening America's scientific base) in the post-9/11 world (Maxine Singer); flaws in U.S. foreign policy--inconsistency, insensitivity, unilateralism once again--that need fixing if we are to fight the asymmetric threat of terrorism (John Lewis Gaddis); the rise of Islamic extremism and fundamentalism--"salafiyyah," Wahhabism-- in the Arab world and "its roots in the history of the Muslim sense of decline and its unhappy encounter with the dominant West;" (Abbas Amanat); the need to maintain our "most fundamental values," such as civil liberties and open debate of issues, while fighting terror (Harold Hongju Koh); and the need for improved intelligence and homeland security while learning as a society how to "live with terrorism" (Paul Bracken). In sum, if you want to understand why 9/11 happened and where we might go from here, I strongly recommend that you read this excellent, well-written, thought-provoking book.
Rating: 2
Summary: Very uneven and, at some points, very poor
Comment: This book of essays was published as a reaction to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Having gotten into print within just a few weeks of the attacks, the essays are as much a reaction to the events as they are dispassionate analyses. Some of the essays are very insightful and standing by themselves would merit a five star rating. Others, however, deserve no more than one star.
The first essay, by John Louis Gaddis is only worth one star because he does not clinically try to understand what made the terrorists tick. Instead, he seems to actually justify their feelings. This kind of analysis of terrorism is never acceptable. In blaming the United States for mistakes it made, Gaddis has the temerity to state, "in the Middle East, we tolerated the continuing Israeli dispossession and repossession of Palestinians even as we were seeking to secure the rights of Palestinians..." First, he is absolutely wrong in his accusations against both the United States and Israel. Second, he gives comfort to terrorism by going beyond a clinical analysis of their alleged grievances.
Equally fatuous is Abbas Amanat who states, "The defiance of Jewish settlers, the arrogance of the Israeli politicians, the tanks, helicopter gunships, and jet fighters roaring overhead, the night raids, the detentions and frequent breaches of basic human rights --- all these provoke intense sentiments of anger and frustration." This type of foolishness makes, what might have otherwise been a fairly good post 9/11/01 book, a piece of garbage. Never, ever concede any understanding of terrorism which might be construed as a justification. Certainly, never concede potential justification when the alleged grounds for such justification are wrong.
There were several good essays but the bad apples spoiled the batch, or in this case, the book.
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Title: Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror by Rohan Gunaratna ISBN: 0425191141 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 03 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: How Did This Happen? Terrorism and the New War by Gideon Rose, James F. Hoge Jr. ISBN: 1586481304 Publisher: PublicAffairs Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: To Prevail: An American Strategy for the Campaign Against Terrorism by Kurt M. Campbell, Michele A. Flournoy ISBN: 0892064072 Publisher: Center for Strategic and International Studies Pub. Date: November, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction by Walter Laqueur ISBN: 0195140648 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: From the Old Diplomacy to the New, 1865-1900 (American History Series) by Robert L. Beisner ISBN: 088295833X Publisher: Harlan Davidson Pub. Date: February, 1986 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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