The History Book Club discussion
POLITICAL SCIENCE
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS - GENERAL
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Here are some books to read on the Middle East process if interested.
See article in Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/feature...
William B. Quandt
Dennis Ross
Martin Indyk
Aaron David Miller
Itamar Rabinovich
Glenn E. Robinson
Yezid Sayigh
J.J. GoldbergNote: If the links to any of the books in the article were not provided, they were not in goodreads. However, the article itself, which is provided, has links to the popular booksellers where books not able to be listed can still be obtained.
Source:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/feature...
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Interesting article in Foreign Affairs...anybody can read the entire article with free registration:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/article...
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http://www.smh.com.au/national/amid-a...
Aussie Rick - what is your take on the change in leadership?
Hi Bentley, I think that the new Prime Minister might do a good job but I suppose for most of the nation it will be a case of wait and see. I think our previous PM lost a lot of support when he kept on backing down on his decisions.
I only hope that she provides the leadership required to keep our country on the right course and provide social justice for all without killing the economy, a hard thing to do!
Many people will be waiting with keen interest to see what she does in regards to taxation, the environment and the divisive issue of asylum seekers or illegal immigrants depending on your point of view.
In regards to the new Australain PM, I think it's a positive step for the Labour party. With the election now called the fun begins. It's intersesting to see the Green's party seems to hold the power with their preferences.
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I think politics is the same world round, it doesn't matter what the people want, its what the politicians need to do to stay in power (a bit cynical I know).
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-afric...
An excerpt:
In a letter to Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said the decision to release Megrahi was "wrong and misguided".
However he said it was a "legally and constitutionally proper" decision by the Scottish government.
Although BP did have discussions with then foreign secretary on the matter, Mr Hague said this was a "perfectly normal and legitimate practice" for a British company.
"There is no evidence that corroborates in any way the allegation of BP's involvement in the Scottish Executive's entirely separate decision to release him on compassionate grounds," Mr Hague wrote.
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Speaker: Feisal Abdul Rauf, Chairman, Cordoba Initiative
Presider: Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations
September 13, 2010
General Meeting:
A Conversation with Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf
Imam Feisal speaks about the need for interreligious dialogue and cooperation while addressing the debate surrounding the community center near the World Trade Center.
The site now has the excerpt and the complete video presentation up.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/22926/...
Folks, this is the complete audio and podcast of the Council of Foreign Relations presentation.
The audio is quite good (it is the full discussion with Q&A). Rauf also describes his coming to America and there is an exceptional Q&A.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/22925/...
COMPLETE VIDEO NOW UP.
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Support For Iraq's Maliki Puts U.S., Iran In Same Camp
by KELLY MCEVERS
There are signs of progress in Iraq's more than six-month political stalemate.
Current Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is beginning to shore up support for a coalition he has formed in order to remain in the top job for a second term — despite the fact that his party lost by a narrow margin in parliamentary elections March 7.
Maliki's list of supporters includes two countries that don't often find themselves on the same team: the U.S. and Iran.
Shiite-majority Iran originally backed the Shiite political bloc called the Iraqi National Alliance. But that bloc so far has failed to present a candidate who can get widespread support.
Now Maliki is proposing to join the Alliance and share power with its members. This super-Shiite bloc could assemble almost enough seats in parliament to form a government.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...
Source: NPR
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China warns Nobel committee not to honour dissident Liu
By Shirong Chen
BBC News
China has warned the Nobel Peace Prize committee not to award the prize to well-known dissident Liu Xiaobo.
The Chinese foreign ministry said giving him the prize would be against Nobel principles.
Mr Liu is serving a long prison sentence for calling for democracy and human rights in China.
A foreign ministry spokeswoman told reporters in Beijing that Liu Xiaobo was serving a jail term because he had violated Chinese law.
Continue reading the main story
Related stories
China dissident's appeal rejected
Liu Xiaobo: 20 years of activism
Awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize would send the wrong message to the world, the spokeswoman said.
It would run contrary to the aims of its founder to promote peace between peoples, and to promote international friendship and disarmament, she added.
Source: BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-...
Who is Liu Xiaobo: 20 years of activism?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacif...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Xiaobo
This is a picture of him with his wife in 2002:
This is a video of him speaking about freedom of expression -
Liu Xiaobo Discusses Freedom of Expression in China
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QJGuP...
Another video:
Liu Xiao Bo 劉曉波 waiting to be charge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH1KNN...
Another video:
Chinese Dissident Liu Xiaobo Sentenced to 11 Years
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXZM9n...
Crazy, I know, maybe Chinese leaders realize that a Nobel prize puts the spotlight in "dark corners" they don't want the outside to see-like reform and freedom of speech. They could be getting their cues from Desmond Tutu of South Africa or Lech Walesa from Poland...
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Of course, the rationale you presented is more than likely how they are thinking.
It is crazy how long the Communists have hung on to power; the effort to clamp down on dissidents and I expect it will be harder.It will be interesting what time will tell us. China says one of its primary focus is to raise the living standards for its people. This usually means in some aspects more education and more enterprise, so it will be harder and harder to keep them in line.
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By Walter Russell Mead
July/August 2010
David Remnick’s The Bridge delivers fresh insights about Barack Obama’s personal and political odyssey -- particularly when it comes to understanding the degree to which Obama is a product of New England’s commitment to social and global reform.
by David Remnick
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http://www.foreignaffairs.com/files/a...
http://www.cfr.org/publication/22995/...
Gideon RoseOverview
In 1991 the United States trounced the Iraqi army in battle only to stumble blindly into postwar turmoil. Then in 2003 the United States did it again. How could this happen? How could the strongest power in modern history fight two wars against the same opponent in just over a decade, win lightning victories both times, and yet still be woefully unprepared for the aftermath?
Because Americans always forget the political aspects of war. Time and again, argues Gideon Rose in this penetrating look at American wars over the last century, our leaders have focused more on beating up the enemy than on creating a stable postwar environment. What happened in Iraq was only the most prominent example of this phenomenon, not an exception to the rule.
Source of write-up: Council on Foreign Relations
Reviews & Endorsements
“A smart new book.”
—Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post
“This is a brilliant book on an important subject. Americans are always disappointed with the outcomes of wars and the troubled peaces that follow. Gideon Rose explains that this is because of the way we think—or don't think—about war and peace. The book is a masterpiece of historical analysis with lessons for our strategy in Afghanistan and beyond.”
—Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World and editor of Newsweek International
“Gideon Rose’s wise, trenchant review of the last century of world conflict is one of the startlingly rare books that gets the connection between war and politics, means and ends.”
—Fred Kaplan, “War Stories” columnist, Slate
“Fred Ikle’s 1971 book Every War Must End has influenced analysts and policymakers for decades. Gideon Rose’s How Wars End is likely to be just as influential for generations to come. You may think you know something about the wars he writes about, but you are guaranteed to learn something new here. Rose is always accurate and fair, neither sycophantic nor unduly scathing. This is a book that should be read by everyone involved in military planning—and everyone affected by the decisions those planners make.”
—Max Boot, the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Savage Wars of Peace and War Made New
“In his trenchant study of how difficult it was to end wars in the past century, Gideon Rose draws fresh and persuasive lessons for how to define and achieve U.S. interests, both in Afghanistan and in the face of future challenges. A timely and important work.”
—Strobe Talbott, author of The Great Experiment and president of Brookings Institution
“By focusing on the intricate, often overlooked endgames of conflicts, Gideon Rose makes a compelling case that the unintended consequences of wars have overwhelmed even the best-intentioned plans of American leaders. Every top official contemplating military action should read this terrific book—and take its lessons to heart.”
—Andrew Nagorski, author of The Greatest Battle
Andrew Nagorski
Strobe Talbott
Max Boot
Fred Charles Ikle
USSR’s Collapse Left 180 Ethnic Conflicts in Its WakeGeorgia has its own nits to pick with Russia, but the situation in the Caucasus and Central Asia is acute:
Staunton, October 24 – The disintegration of the Soviet Union left approximately 180 places, many along borders put in place by Stalin, where ethno-national tensions are high and where in approximately 20 cases they have already broken out in violence, according to Vladimir Zorin, a Moscow ethnographer who served as Russia’s last minister for nationality affairs.The Georgian Daily, Oct. 24
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And what is always amazing to me is how these nationalities were put together in an empire, allowing the powder to accumulate, ready for any spark.
Bryan wrote: "And what is always amazing to me is how these nationalities were put together in an empire, allowing the powder to accumulate, ready for any spark."It could be argued that the Soviet Union was the last European empire to experience decolonization.
Vheissu wrote: "Bryan wrote: "And what is always amazing to me is how these nationalities were put together in an empire, allowing the powder to accumulate, ready for any spark."It could be argued that the Sovie..."
I 100% agree with you Vheissu, and it wasn't just the economy that brought the USSR down; it was also the nationalities wanting to break out.
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A sad story that is all to common in Lebanon. Makes me appreciate were I live.http://www.almanar.com.lb/newssite/Ne...
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"Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slave of some defunct economist," John Maynard Keynes once wrote. Politicians and pundits view the world through instincts and assumptions rooted in some philosopher's Big Idea. Some ideas are old and taken for granted throughout society. For most Americans, it is the ideas of the liberal tradition, from John Locke to Woodrow Wilson, that shape their thinking about foreign policy. The sacred concepts of freedom, individualism, and cooperation are so ingrained in U.S. political culture that most people assume them to be the natural order of things, universal values that people everywhere would embrace if given the chance.
Francis FukuyamaSource:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/article...
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By Doyle McManus of the LA Times
Beset by problems at home, Obama may look for gains in foreign policy.
Here's one thing last week's congressional election wasn't about: foreign policy. The campaign was long, loud and polarized, but somehow the fact that the United States is at war in Afghanistan and Iraq — and carrying out bombings in Pakistan and Yemen — went almost unmentioned.
That's because voters were preoccupied by the economy, of course. But it's also because foreign policy has been a zone of relative bipartisanship in Washington, an oasis of civility compared with the battlegrounds of economic policy and healthcare.
That's about to end. As the 2012 presidential campaign gets underway, potential Republican candidates, including Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, are sharpening their critiques of President Obama as a foreign policy leader. In Congress, meanwhile, the main victims of the election were middle-ground Democrats; the parties that remain are even more polarized between thoroughgoing liberals and hard-line conservatives.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/c...
Source: Los Angeles Times
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/...
Source: The Washington Post
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By Josef Joffe and James W. Davis
January/February 2011
Article in Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/article...
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In May, Yale University Press released Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft, and World Order by Charles Hill. Hill, Brady-Johnson Distinguished Fellow in Grand Strategy and Senior Lecturer in Humanities at Yale University, connects the reading of classic literary works to the study and practice of statecraft. Using"The Iliad," "Huckleberry Finn," and "Tale of Two Cities," among other sources, Hill builds an introduction to the major concepts of politics and order in international relations.
by Charles Hill
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http://www.foreignaffairs.com/article... 24, 2011
The Middle East is boiling.
Unprecedented popular uprisings have rocked a number of countries, especially the three where I served as U.S. ambassador -- Tunisia, Egypt, and Bahrain. Demonstrators, taking to the streets to protest their dismal living conditions, refused to be beaten back, swelling until the autocratic presidents in Tunisia and Egypt were driven from power. As of this writing, the family-run government in Bahrain is fighting back, hoping its security forces and hold on power will be strong enough to outlast the protests. The uprisings in the three countries have had many similarities, but there have also been significant differences. All three face rising unemployment as a result of the global recession. They were experiencing growing gaps between rich and poor, stifled free speech, repression of the opposition, widespread corruption, and continuing autocratic control behind a veneer of democratic openings.
Tunisia had not seemed particularly shaky. It was a country that seemed to be doing many things right: universal education for men and women, low military spending, and positive economic growth. A large middle class was developing, and the country had become a popular tourist destination for Europeans. The government was authoritarian but also determinedly secular and pro-Western. The cracks, however, were larger than anyone thought: President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali had carefully hidden the extent to which illness had weakened his control of the government; his ties with other centers of power, such as the military and police, had withered; and corruption within his family had become more flagrant.
Although the percentage of youth looking for work was lower than in neighboring countries, more were university graduates with higher expectations. Their frustration and anger became unbearable. The desperate act of one of them, Mohamed Bouazizi, who set himself on fire in front of a police station in a sad town in Tunisia’s interior, became the symbol and catalyzing spark for the whole generation. His act of self-immolation might have passed unnoticed, but it was captured on a cell-phone camera, and soon the rest of Tunisia -- and the whole world -- knew.
Technology, therefore, played a role, as did the intrepid Arabic news channel Al Jazeera, whose reporters blended in with the demonstrators and sent out regular reports to electrifying effect. Activists used Twitter and Facebook to mobilize street demonstrations and spread warnings on police tactics and concentrations. WikiLeaks, moreover, had weeks earlier published the U.S. ambassador’s confidential reports of corruption within the president’s family. These had the effect of turning gossip and rumor into fact and fueling popular anger. In this case, then, I would argue that some benefits have been gained: a dictator has fallen, and reporting from U.S. embassies has gained new credibility. Still, foreign leaders will be less candid with American diplomats in the future.
The president’s deft handling of the Egyptian crisis so far has strengthened his foreign affairs record.
Tunisia’s small but professional army had always stayed out of politics. When Ben Ali ordered it to reinforce the security police in putting down the riots, the army refused to deploy or fire on fellow citizens. The United States, to its credit, was ahead of Arab and European governments in expressing unambiguous support for the protests, quickly shifting from calling for calm to recognizing the legitimacy of demonstrators’ demands. In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama stated, “Tonight, let us be clear: the United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia and supports the democratic aspirations of all peoples.” His words both affirmed and encouraged the protesters.
Sparked by coverage of Tunisians’ success in ousting their dictator, Egyptians poured into the streets of all of the country’s major cities, demanding that President Hosni Mubarak, 82 and pharaoh for 30 years, step down. The specter of another 30 years under his son added to their anger. Still, the regime could not have been expected to collapse as easily as Tunisia’s had, and indeed, it did not. Mubarak was not as alone and isolated as Ben Ali, and his family was not so visibly rapacious. He was from and of the armed forces, the largest and most cohesive institution in Egypt, and part of the proud military tradition that overthrew King Farouk, ended British colonial influence, and brought independence under Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar el-Sadat, and Mubarak.
Senior military officers initially stood with him, quietly supporting his transfer of governing power to his newly appointed vice president and longtime confidant, Omar Suleiman. But when strong-arm tactics by security irregulars failed to suppress the massive demonstrations in Tahrir Square, the senior officer corps, who regarded themselves foremost as guardians of the first Egyptian revolution, sent Mubarak into retirement. Egypt is now undergoing two transitions: the first from Mubarak to a more inclusive government; the second from direct military rule to a diluted but still powerful military influence in Egyptian affairs.
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Jonathan LyonsGoodreads Write-up:
For centuries following the fall of Rome, medieval Europe was a benighted backwater, a world of subsistence farming, minimal literacy, and violent conflict. Meanwhile, from Persia to Spain, Islamic culture was thriving, dazzling those Europeans fortunate enough to be aware of it. Muslim philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers were steadily advancing the frontiers of knowledge, as well as exploring ancient Greek works lost or forgotten in the West.
Even while their peers waged bloody Crusades against Islam, a handful of restless Christian scholars traveled to the East to seek its wisdom. In 1109, Adelard of Bath journeyed from England to Asia Minor and returned with priceless knowledge that transformed European science. He was followed by others, such as Michael Scot, who learned Arabic in Toledo, and, it was said, became the model for Shakespeare's Prospero. The House of Wisdom tells the tale of these pilgrims, and of the knowledge they brought from Arabia to Europe—knowledge that laid the foundations for the Renaissance.
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POLITICAL UNREST IN THE ARAB WORLD
Peter Ackerman and Jack Goldstone spoke about political unrest and popular uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East. In his remarks Mr. Goldstone focused on conditions that give rise to revolutions, highlighted the vulnerabilities of "sultanistic" dictatorships, and identified which Middle Eastern regimes were most likely to retain power. They also answered questions from the audience.
Transcript also available:
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Po...
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Interviewee: Carl M. Levin, Chairman, Armed Services Committee
Interviewer: James M. Lindsay, Director of Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
October 21, 2011
Senator Carl M. Levin (D-MI), chairman of the Armed Services Committee, discusses U.S. involvement in Libya following Muammar al-Qaddafi's death, as well as progress in Afghanistan and possible federal budget sequestration with CFR's James M. Lindsay. "We've not been in the lead in Libya," Levin says, emphasizing that any future involvement must continue "on an international basis with us being part of it, not in the lead or dominating it."
http://www.cfr.org/us-strategy-and-po...
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Interviewee: Najam Sethi, Editor-in-Chief, Geo News; Editor-in-Chief, Friday Times; Pakistan
Interviewer: Jayshree Bajoria, Deputy Editor, CFR.org
December 23, 2011
U.S.-Pakistan ties deteriorated significantly in the past year, and the anti-American rhetoric in Pakistani media (NYT), especially television, reached a crescendo.
Najam Sethi, an award-winning Pakistani journalist and editor-in-chief of Geo News and the English political weekly Friday Times, says U.S. counterterrorism policies in Pakistan have caused this acrimony.
The two countries, he says, have failed to develop a strategic relationship because of each side's refusal to consider the other's national security interests in Afghanistan.
Calling the development of Pakistan's media "a work in progress;" Sethi says the anti-American and anti-Indian narrative runs more fiercely in the Urdu-language press. "English media is more liberal, rational, and oriented towards pragmatism" but do not reach as wide an audience as the other regional media, he says.
At the same time, Sethi points to attempts by the army to manipulate the media. The media's main threats come from ethnic, jihadi, and sectarian groups, "some of which are patronized by the national security establishment," he says.
Video Available:
http://www.cfr.org/pakistan/pakistani...
Source: Council on Foreign Relations
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by Council on Foreign RelationsSynopsis:
The New Arab Revolt: What Happened, What It Means, and What Comes Next sets the intellectual stage for understanding the revolutions in the Middle East.
This collection brings together more than sixty articles, interviews, congressional testimony, and op-eds from experts and thought leaders, including Bernard Lewis, Fouad Ajami, Richard Haass, Lisa Anderson, Martin Indyk, Isobel Coleman, Aluf Benn, Dirk Vandewalle, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
The volume includes seminal pieces from Foreign Affairs, ForeignAffairs.com, and CFR.org.
In addition, major public statements by Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Hosni Mubarak, Muammar al-Qaddafi, and others are joined by Egyptian opposition writings and relevant primary source documents.
Even if you have been paying close attention to the extraordinary events unfolding in the Middle East, this book pulls together what is needed to understand the origins and significance of the new Arab revolt, including a special introduction by Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose.
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Jonathan D. Tepperman and Hooman Majd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
Managing Editor Jonathan Tepperman interviews author Hooman Majd after a year in Iran researching his next book. Watch them discuss the effect of sanctions on the Iranian population, the role of nationalism in support for Iran's nuclear program, regime change versus specific social change, and policy recommendations for the U.S. government in dealing with the diplomatic challenges Iran poses.
Christmas is No Time for an Iranian Revolution
It was Christmastime in Tehran, and forecasters were predicting another early snow. On a cold day last December at the bazaar in Tajrish, the wealthy historic neighborhood in northern Tehran, shoppers avoided the exposed alleyway stalls and instead headed for the warmth of the nearby mini-malls, which were as overheated as any in the United States. Inside one, kids gathered around the window of a Christmas shop to gaze at the ornaments and plastic Santas inside. A few other shops also had Christmas decorations -- perfectly legal in the Islamic Republic, even if the religious authorities frown on them. Christians are free to celebrate as they wish -- there are even Christmas trees for sale on the sidewalks in the Armenian neighborhoods of Tehran.
See article:
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/feature...
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Speaker: James M. Lindsay, Director of Studies, Council on Foreign Relations
January 19, 2012
On a cold, snowy morning fifty-one years ago, President John F. Kennedy stepped up to a podium at the East Front of the Capitol building and delivered what was perhaps the most memorable inaugural address since Franklin Delano Roosevelt's first, remembers James M. Lindsay, senior vice president and director of studies. Seeking to calm fears about the rise of Soviet power during the 1950s, Kennedy spoke eloquently of the United States as a near limitless force for change in the world. He called on U.S. citizens to act in support of their government, uttering the immortal line: "Ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country."
However, Vietnam disproved the notion that the American public was willing to "bear any burden," says Lindsay. A successful foreign policy, whether it be a war with Vietnam in the 1960s or negotiations with Iran or North Korea, requires balancing costs and benefits and ensuring public support. So while Kennedy's words inspire us today, Lindsay argues, they also provide a powerful reminder of the perils of overreaching.
This video is part of Lessons Learned, a series dedicated to exploring historical events and examining their meaning in the context of foreign relations today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
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The Uncertain Future of an American Ally
by Author: Thomas W. Lippman, Adjunct Scholar, Middle East Institute
Overview
Of all the countries in the world that are vital to the strategic and economic interests of the United States, Saudi Arabia is the least understood by the American people. Saudi Arabia's unique place in Islam makes it indispensable to a constructive relationship between the non-Muslim West and the Muslim world. For all its wealth, the country faces daunting challenges that it lacks the tools to meet: a restless and young population, a new generation of educated women demanding opportunities in a closed society, political stagnation under an octogenarian leadership, religious extremism and intellectual backwardness, social division, chronic unemployment, shortages of food and water, and troublesome neighbors.
Today's Saudi people, far better informed than all previous generations, are looking for new political institutions that will enable them to be heard, but these aspirations conflict with the kingdom's strict traditions and with the House of Saud's determination to retain all true power. Meanwhile, the country wishes to remain under the protection of American security but still clings to a system that is antithetical to American values.
Basing his work on extensive interviews and field research conducted in the kingdom from 2008 through 2011 under the auspices of the Council on Foreign Relations, Thomas W. Lippman dissects this central Saudi paradox for American readers, including diplomats, policymakers, scholars, and students of foreign policy.
by Thomas W. Lippman
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Lessons Learned: Richard Nixon Goes to China
On February 17, 1972, President Richard Nixon departed on a historic trip to China. The United States had no formal diplomatic relationship with China since Mao Zedong's communist government came to power in 1949. Nixon's trip put relations between the two countries on an entirely different track, and changed the face of international relations during the Cold War. Nixon would call it the "week that changed the world."
James M. Lindsay, CFR's senior vice president and director of studies, says that Nixon's trip clearly demonstrates the idea that diplomacy matters in foreign policy. History, he says, is "usually told as the story of epic battles and courageous last stands." But diplomacy plays just as great a historical role, he argues, and remains vital today for dealing with countries as diverse as China, Iran, or Myanmar.
This video is part of Lessons Learned, a series dedicated to exploring historical events and examining their meaning in the context of foreign relations today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=...
Kennan Biography Wins 2012 PulitzerOn April 16, Yale History Professor John Lewis Gaddis won the 2012 biography Pulitzer for "George F. Kennan: An American Life," which was published in November 2011 after nearly two decades of research. In naming Gaddis the winner, the Pulitzer jurors called his work "an engaging portrait of a globetrotting diplomat whose complicated life was interwoven with the Cold War and America’s emergence as the world’s dominant power."
In March, Gaddis' biography took home the American History Book Prize, earning him $50,000 and the title of American Historian Laureate. The Kennan biography also won the National Book Critics Circle Award.
This book is high on my TBR list.
John Lewis Gaddis(no photo)Who Was George F. Kennan?
George Frost Kennan (February 16, 1904 – March 17, 2005) was an American adviser, diplomat, political scientist and historian, best known as "the father of containment" and as a key figure in the emergence of the Cold War. He later wrote standard histories of the relations between Russia and the Western powers.
In the late 1940s, his writings inspired the Truman Doctrine and the U.S. foreign policy of "containing" the Soviet Union, thrusting him into a lifelong role as a leading authority on the Cold War. His "Long Telegram" from Moscow in 1946 and the subsequent 1947 article "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" argued that the Soviet regime was inherently expansionist and that its influence had to be "contained" in areas of vital strategic importance to the United States. These texts quickly emerged as foundation texts of the Cold War, expressing the Truman administration's new anti-Soviet Union policy. Kennan also played a leading role in the development of definitive Cold War programs and institutions, notably the Marshall Plan.
Soon after his concepts had become US policy, Kennan began to criticize the foreign policies that he had seemingly helped launch. Subsequently, prior to the end of 1948, Kennan was confident the state of affairs in Western Europe had developed to the point where positive dialogue could commence with the Soviet Union. His proposals were discounted by the Truman administration and Kennan's influence was marginalized, particularly after Dean Acheson was appointed Secretary of State in 1949. Soon thereafter, U.S. Cold War strategy assumed a more assertive and militaristic quality, causing Kennan to lament over what he believed was as an aberration of his previous assessments.
In 1950, Kennan left the Department of State, except for two brief ambassadorial stints in Moscow and Yugoslavia and became a leading realist critic of U.S. foreign policy. He continued to be a leading thinker in international affairs as a faculty member of the Institute for Advanced Study from 1956 until his death at age 101 in March 2005.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_F...
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George F. Kennan
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George F. Kennan
Bentley wrote: "Does Diplomacy Matter?Lessons Learned: Richard Nixon Goes to China
I regret that I am a lonely critic when comes to the diplomacy of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. In my personal opinion, their initiatives were overstated in some cases and disastrous in others.
With respect to the China opening, the visit came at the invitation of Zhou Enlai, who wished to restore domestic economic and political stability after the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese also saw the Soviet Union as their greatest threat and the Americans as unlikely but compliant allies in the containment of Russia in the Far East. Nixon and Kissinger accepted Zhou's invitation, but they were hardly the architects of rapprochement.
In one stroke, Nixon and Kissinger stabbed native Taiwanese in the back by signing the "Shanghai Accord," which recognized Beijing as the sole, legitimate authority of all China.
Nixon and Kissinger's diplomacy was founded on the erroneous belief that the postwar world was no longer bipolar but had, in fact, become multipolar and that the United States should adjust accordingly to this "reality." Not only were they wrong--Europe, China, and Japan were not great powers--but the Soviet Union would fall within fifteen years, creating a brief unipolar "moment" for which the United States was ill prepared. China may yet achieve parity with the United States, but it is not there yet.
Nixon and Kissinger are credited with negotiating the SALT treaty with the Soviets, which limited the number of strategic weapon delivery systems but not the number of nuclear warheads. They then proceeded to sell the technology required for MIRVing ICBMs to the U.S.S.R., negating any real value of SALT and making the world a much more dangerous place. Nixon negotiated an ABM Treaty with the Soviets but never followed through on the American side with a credible antimissile system.
Combine this misstep with Nixon's August 1971 "shock," which wrecked world financial markets, strained America's relations with its Canadian and European allies, and established the conditions that lead to the "stagflation" of the 1970s, and America's disgraceful and long overdue exit from Vietnam and one is left with a foreign policy leaving much to be desired in my humble opinion.
Vheissu wrote: "Bentley wrote: "Does Diplomacy Matter?Lessons Learned: Richard Nixon Goes to China
I regret that I am a lonely critic when comes to the diplomacy of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. In my perso..."
Thanks for your interesting and insightful post. What is MIRVing?
It's hard for me to imagine a world where China was not too big to ignore or shut out. Surely, however, if China was the side making the advances, perhaps we had the clout at that time to make a stand for Taiwan.
On the other hand, I have many, many problems with other foreign policy, economic, and political aspects of the Nixon Administration.
Bea wrote: "What is MIRVing?The acronym stands for "Multiple, Independently-targeted Reentry Vehicles. It basically means putting up to ten bombs on top of a single rocket.
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Bea wrote: "Kennan Biography Wins 2012 PulitzerOn April 16, Yale History Professor John Lewis Gaddis won the 2012 biography Pulitzer for "George F. Kennan: An American Life," which was published in November ..."
Wow, I was in his undergraduate program at Ohio University, but I never had his class or met him. He is a guru of Cold War history.
John Lewis Gaddis
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
FantasticLand (other topics)The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (other topics)
Russia and the Arctic: Environment, Identity and Foreign Policy (other topics)
The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State (other topics)
Powerplay: The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Lawrence Wright (other topics)Geir Hønneland (other topics)
Lawrence Wright (other topics)
Victor Cha (other topics)
Asa McKercher (other topics)
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You wouldn't know it from some of the questions in today's Senate hearings.
By Fred Kaplan
http://www.slate.com/id/2254277/