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Title: Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy by Robert Kagan, William Kristol ISBN: 1-893554-16-3 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43 (7 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Not worth buying or reading
Comment: While I disagree with much of the content of this book, that is not why you shouldn't buy this book. The reason not to buy is that this book is greatly out-dated. It was from before 9-11, and the neo-con perspective and focus on the world is now quite different.
Rating: 3
Summary: Neoconserative fantasy foreign policy
Comment: The problem with neoconservative foreign policy is not that it is conservative and realistic but rather that it is liberal. The descriptions of problems here presented are real enough but the policies advocated in response are simply unrealistic precisely because they are imbued with a kind of moralizing and crusading liberalism that is not going to solve America's foreign policy problems but rather exacerbate them. Doubtless American intervention is required in many areas (and not in the form of social work as advocated by the UN and the Left), but proclaiming complex problems to be simple forces of good and evil that can be solved with the revolutionary and forceful imposition of democracy is classic Wilsonian liberal nonsense. It is simply a liberal-minded fantasy that you can import democracy and human rights to places that do not have the historical and institutional background to support it. It is true that a realisitic foreign policy that encourages intervention without the aid of some rhetorical flourishes of high-minded but naive and impractical principles will fail to be legitimized in the mind of the demos; however, to go so far as to actually implement these principles as policy is not only doomed to failure but will most certainly result in "blowback" against American interests. Much more prudence and the reassertion of realistic geopolitical strategies wrapped in the rhetoric of Wilsonian fantasy worlds is needed in place of the actual implementation of crusading liberal ideologies when it comes to foreign policy. We should expect much more especially from William Kristol, being the student of the great Machiavellian scholar Harvey Mansfield.
Rating: 4
Summary: Absolutely a must-read: know your enemy!
Comment: This is undoubtedly one of the most important books on US foreign policy published in recent years and should be read by anyone who cares about the future of the United States and the rest of the world. This is the manifesto of "conservative internationalism" whose proponents, including many of the books authors, now infest the Bush administration and are his loudest ventriloquists. Here, then, is the current administration's strategic vision.
The basic argument is that the US needs to exercise world domination, here spun as "benevolent global hegemony" and that there are a number of external obstacles which stand in the way and must be dealt with. These are Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, the Middle East peace process and an independent Europe. In its clear and reasoned enunciation of strategy and future plans, it both rivals and surpasses the later chapters of Mein Kampf. Here is the game plan which must be read to understand where these people intend to take the world next.
If we ignore the desirability of this mission, its feasibility (the cost in money, lives and freedom) certainly merits discussion, but here the book is thin, relying on fairy story assumptions (budget surpluses!!!) and wishful thinking.
The one distasteful aspect of the book is the attempt to wrap the entire endeavour in the cloak of "American morality", understood as protecting citizen's liberties. This is breathtaking stuff from accomplices in the most extensive attempt to incinerate the Constitution in recent history.
Stripped of its ideological air cover and romantic fantasies, this is still an important, timely and lively document since this is the future course of foreign policy which the Bush administration plans to pursue.
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Title: An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror by DAVID FRUM, RICHARD PERLE ISBN: 1400061946 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 30 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order by Robert Kagan ISBN: 1400040930 Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Pub. Date: 28 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The War over Iraq: Saddam's Tyranny and America's Mission by William Kristol, Lawrence Kaplan ISBN: 1893554694 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Neo-Conservatism: The Autobiography of an Idea by Irving Kristol ISBN: 1566632285 Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher Pub. Date: 01 March, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.90 |
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Title: The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to Culture Wars by Mark Gerson ISBN: 1568331002 Publisher: Madison Books Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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