Making War to Keep Peace CD

by Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, Kimberly Schraf (Reader)

An analysis of America's overseas conflicts since the end of the Cold War provides a survey of American foreign policy that evaluates the nation's increasingly fractured relationship with the United Nations and the results of the use of force by the U.S.throughout the world.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, History, American History

Audio CD

First published April 24, 2007

About the author

Jeane Duane Kirkpatrick, née Jordan and writing as Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and became the first woman to hold this position.

She is famous for her "Kirkpatrick Doctrine," which advocated U.S. support of anticommunist governments around the world, including authoritarian dictatorships, if they went along with Washington's aims—believing they could be led into democracy by example. She wrote, "Traditional authoritarian governments are less repressive than revolutionary autocracies."

Kirkpatrick served on Reagan's Cabinet on the National Security Council, Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Defense Policy Review Board, and chaired the Secretary of Defense Commission on Fail Safe and Risk reduction of the Nuclear Command and Control System.

Reviews

[Tommy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very contradictory. America has infinite global duties and responsibilities (more so in Europe than Haiti) but has to stay committed to "collective security" and the United Nations although she also claims it's totally dysfunctional and to slow and if it was left to them hundreds of American lives would of been lost to the revolutionary threat of Grenada. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was totally legal, but also totally wrong on every other level, and the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was legally more in the wrong than Bush. She was concerned for "credibility" but America nonetheless would come out ok in the end because America has always been about promoting democracy but you also can't expect most of the world to embrace that since we're in a clash of civilizations so...?

[Michelle Voran · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a super interesting read. At times, it was hard for me to get through mainly because it was a lot of information that I didn’t know a lot about. However, I learned a lot and came away from it realizing that these are very complex situations with deep history. I knew a very small amount about most of these scenarios only because most of them happened as I was growing up, but it was interesting (and deeply heart breaking) to read more details about the countries, decisions nationally and internationally, and results of those decisions.

[Ewilliams3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dry at times but an interesting review of post cold war American foreign policy until the early phases of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Kirkpatrick's views on foreign policy strike a clear balance between restraint and engagement that many in Washington would do well to study.

[Urey Patrick]

Fascinating and perceptive review of policy and actions initiated by Presidents Reagan/Bush41/Clinton/Bush43 and the influence, policies and actions of the UN during the same period - emphases on the first Gulf War, Somalia, Haiti, the Balkans and, briefly, Iraq and Afghanistan. Ambassador Kirkpatrick pulls no punches, and the feckless policies of assorted Presidents and UN General Secretaries will trouble you.

[Brian S. Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

A dry but very informative examination of American interventionism following the conclusion of the Cold War.