false 9883 16003 1400034183 9781400034185 18 <![CDATA[Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166696740m/16003.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166696740s/16003.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16003.Of_Paradise_and_Power_America_and_Europe_in_the_New_World_Order 3.43 181 Of Paradise and Power announces a new phase in the relationship between the United States and Europe. Robert Kagan begins this illuminating essay by laying out the general differences as he sees them: the U.S. is quicker to use military force, less patient with diplomacy, and more willing to coerce (or bribe) other nations in order to get a desired result. Europe, on the other hand, places greater emphasis on diplomacy, takes a much longer view of history and problem solving, and has greater faith in international law and cooperation. Kagan does not view these differences as the result of innate national character, but as a time-honored historical reality--the U.S. is merely behaving like the powerful nation it is, just as the great European nations once did when they ruled the world. Now, Europe must act multilaterally because it has no choice. The "UN Security Council is a substitute for the power they lack," he writes. </p>

Kagan also emphasizes the inherent ironies present in the relationship. European nations have enjoyed an "American security guarantee" for nearly 60 years, allowing them to cut back on defense spending while criticizing the U.S. for not doing the same. Yet Europe relies upon the U.S. for protection. This has led America and Europe to view the same threats much differently, as evidenced by the split over how to deal with Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Kagan points out that some European leaders are more afraid of how the U.S. will wield its power in the Middle East than they are of the thought of Hussein or other "rogue state" leaders acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Kagan's brevity is as impressive as it is appreciated; most writers would have required thrice as many pages to get to their point. At any length, the book is nothing short of brilliant. This is essential reading for those seeking to understand the post-Cold War world. --Shawn Carkonen]]> 9883 3.50 353 58 2003 2611798 030726923X 9780307269232 24 <![CDATA[The Return of History and the End of Dreams]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2611798.The_Return_of_History_and_the_End_of_Dreams 3.57 93 Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. Nation-states remain as strong as ever, as do the old, explosive forces of ambitious nationalism. The world remains “unipolar,” but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict. Communism is dead, but a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics. Finally, radical Islamists are waging a violent struggle against the modern secular cultures and powers that, in their view, have dominated, penetrated, and polluted their Islamic world. The grand expectation that after the Cold War the world would enter an era of international geopolitical convergence has proven wrong.

For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.

]]> 9883 3.50 353 58 2008 116856 0375411054 9780375411052 10 <![CDATA[Dangerous Nation]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171731118m/116856.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171731118s/116856.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/116856.Dangerous_Nation 3.67 45 From the author of the immensely influential and best-selling Of Paradise and Power—a major reevaluation of America’s place in the world from the colonial era to the turn of the twentieth century.

Robert Kagan strips away the myth of America’s isolationist tradition and reveals a more complicated reality: that Americans have been increasing their global power and influence steadily for the past four centuries. Even from the time of the Puritans, he reveals, America was no shining “city up on a hill” but an engine of commercial and territorial expansion that drove Native Americans, as well as French, Spanish, Russian, and ultimately even British power, from the North American continent. Even before the birth of the nation, Americans believed they were destined for global leadership. Underlying their ambitions, Kagan argues, was a set of ideas and ideals about the world and human nature. He focuses on the Declaration of Independence as the document that firmly established the American conviction that the inalienable rights of all mankind transcended territorial borders and blood ties. American nationalism, he shows, was always internationalist at its core. He also makes a startling discovery: that the Civil War and the abolition of slavery—the fulfillment of the ideals of the Declaration—were the decisive turning point in the history of American foreign policy as well. Kagan's brilliant and comprehensive reexamination of early American foreign policy makes clear why America, from its very beginning, has been viewed worldwide not only as a wellspring of political, cultural, and social revolution, but as an ambitious and, at times, dangerous nation.

]]> 9883 3.50 353 58 2006 5111581 3980492540 9783980492546 0 <![CDATA[Quo vadis, Amerika?: Die Welt nach Bush]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5111581.Quo_vadis_Amerika_Die_Welt_nach_Bush 4.50 2 21880 4.50 2 0 6356 3.87 27660 6156 808214 4.33 3 0 186649 4.67 3 0 165777 3.83 202 47 143011 3.47 15 2 129119 3.52 88 19 80026 4.24 569 190 50363 3.63 116 12 30957 3.79 298 27 22393 3.86 3793 660 9883 3.50 353 58 6499 3.65 492 109 1474921 4.50 2 0 2008 746583 0028740572 9780028740577 0 <![CDATA[TWILIGHT STRUGGLE: American Power and Nicaragua, 1977-1990]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177971131m/746583.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177971131s/746583.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/746583.TWILIGHT_STRUGGLE_American_Power_and_Nicaragua_1977_1990 3.50 2 9883 3.50 353 58 1996 746584 1893554163 9781893554160 0 <![CDATA[Present Dangers: Crisis and Opportunity in American Foreign and Defense Policy]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177971131m/746584.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1177971131s/746584.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/746584.Present_Dangers_Crisis_and_Opportunity_in_American_Foreign_and_Defense_Policy 2.00 3 Present Dangers. According to the editors--Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and William Kristol of The Weekly Standard--America's most significant threats come from within, rather than without. They worry that "the United States, the world's dominant power on whom the maintenance of international peace and the support of liberal democratic principles depends, will shrink its responsibilities and--in a fit of absentmindedness, or parsimony, or indifference--allow the international order that it created and sustains to collapse." As might be expected, the Clinton administration comes in for a thrashing on these pages. Ross H. Munro, an expert on China, writes: "However history judges [President] Clinton, the assessment of how his administration dealt with a rising China is certain to be harsh." In a chapter on Russia, Peter W. Rodman slams the Clintonites for "sentimentality," an "absurd doctrinal fetish" with arms control, and "an unwillingness to assert major American strategic interests and impose a penalty for harm done to them, lest the poor Russians feel hurt." There are other essays, too: Richard N. Perle on Iraq, Elliott Abrams on the Middle East, and William J. Bennett on the importance of morality and character in foreign policy. Clear thinking and straightforward writing mark each chapter.

As a whole, Present Dangers is an excellent primer on how a Republican foreign policy might look in the early years of the 21st century. But to be sure, a Republican foreign policy would not inevitably look this way; in one of the book's best sections, James W. Caesar examines the realist and isolationist schools of conservative thought and contrasts them with the view expressed throughout Present Dangers. Yet this is a strong and convincing call for "a strong commitment to vigorous American global leadership, to American power, and to the advancement of American democratic and free-market principles abroad." --John J. Miller

]]> 9883 3.50 353 58 2000 7123455 0307427099 9780307427090 0 <![CDATA[Of Paradise and Power]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7123455-of-paradise-and-power 0.0 0 9883 3.50 353 58 2007 6043579 3886807940 9783886807949 0 <![CDATA[Macht und Ohnmacht]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6043579.Macht_und_Ohnmacht 0.0 0 9883 3.50 353 58 2003 4480287 3886808904 9783886808908 0 <![CDATA[Die Demokratie und ihre Feinde]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4480287.Die_Demokratie_und_ihre_Feinde 0.0 0 9883 3.50 353 58 2008 1089676 0917616472 9780917616471 0 <![CDATA[Social Regulation]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1089676.Social_Regulation 0.0 0 9883 3.50 353 58 1982 7104873 0 <![CDATA[Americans Are from Mars, Europeans Are from Venus]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7104873-americans-are-from-mars-europeans-are-from-venus 0.0 0 9883 3.50 353 58 6152570 0917616464 9780917616464 0 <![CDATA[Social Regulation]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1257961068m/6152570.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1257961068s/6152570.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6152570.Social_Regulation 0.0 0 27214 3.21 48 6 9883 3.50 353 58 1982