Dangerous Nation

I cautiously approached this book having read some other professional reviews in fear that it might be too much a literary essay and hence non-readable. I have been very pleasantly surprised and recommend it to anyone who might like to look at where we (American) have come from in terms of getting involved in "other people's business". I thoroughly enjoyed the way Kagan shows the contrasting opinions, often in the same founding father's mind. I too am often in a quandry as to where we should mind our own country's business and where our responsibilities as citizens of the world come into play. Kagan does a good job of examining how we've come from the world of the Monroe Doctrine (not exactly what I thought it was) to policemen of the world (actually only up to the turn of the Spanish American War). Now I'd like to see a similar appraisal of the past 100 years.

In our current public debate, intellectual laziness often causes us to support this or that position with certain favorite quotes from the Founding Fathers, stripped of their historical context. How many times do we need to hear about Jefferson's "wall" separating Church and State brought into a discussion about a woman's "right to choose"? How many times has Washington's exhortation "to avoid foreign entanglements" -- in his 1796 Farewell Address -- been quoted to us when the topic is "what to do" in Bosnia, Kosovo or, lately, in Iraq? Clearly, Robert Kagan is tired of these quotations, which stop all argument, too. The fulcrum of his book is Washington's Farewell Address. He spends the first 120 pages of his book preparing the historical context of this speech from the French-Indian War to 1796, and spends a full 20 pages explaining all of the foreign entanglements a fledgling America had already involved itself during 1796. In effect, Kagan modifies Washington's "rule" of foreign policy by making the case that Washington argued not to eliminate all foreign entanglements, but only those, which were not in America's "interest." The trick since then has been to decide, which entanglements were in America's interest and which weren't. It is instructive to know that Kagan began this book in 1996, before publishing "Paradise and Power." Not only was 1996 the 200th anniversary of the Farewell Address, but also a special moment in American history when Americans were so tired of "history" and "foreign entanglements" that it looked like we would never want to or have to "entangle" ourselves again. At the same time, we were forced to watch the genocide in the Balkans go unstopped by both a "weak" Europe and an "indifferent" America. Of course, this moment in history is explored in depth in "Paradise and Power," but it informs "Dangerous Nation." While I must admit that I still have 100 pages to go in Kagan's book, the reason is twofold: on the one hand, the book is exhaustive in detail and in creating context; and, on the other hand, the book is somewhat exhausting to read, such that I can only manage about 30 pages per day. Nevertheless, the book must be read due to it's unique perspective on American history. Kagan definitively demonstrates that the American mission has been messianic, interventionist, and idealistic from its Founding.

Be prepared to be shocked (and awed) because Robert Kagan posits some of the most controversial theories about the United States' foreign policy including: Washington's Farewell Address: a speech not for the ages, but one only intended for the first few years of the young republic Monroe Doctrine: much debated, but not implemented, because of the issue that tore apart the nation in the second quarter of the 19th century Hawaiian Statehood: applied for annexation to the United States in the first half of the 19th century, but because it fell south of the Missouri compromise line, and thus would be classified as a slave state, refused, and had to wait more than 100 years to join the nation as a state The Spanish-American War: perhaps the most popular war in U.S. history? Kagan takes us on an exhaustive, exhausting thrill-ride through the foreign policy decisions of the United States from its pre-Revolutionary War era to the Spanish-American War at the end of the 19th century. (The reader will have to wait for the next volume to find out what happens in the twentieth century.) Forget your dull high school history books; what you'll find here confounds the complacent reader who can name the Battles of each of our wars, but not the battles that were fought before, during, and after the bloodshed. The saddest, most shocking section of the book focuses on the issue that eclipsed America's external focus of terroritorial expansion in the 19th century as it imploded in the years from the 1820's to the 1860's: slavery. Kagan describes a time when the United States stood alone among the nations of the world as our shameful sin, slavery, was denounced by intellectuals and the common man throughout the rest of the world community. We were founded on a belief that all men were created equal, and indeed had certain inalienable rights, yet we were hypocritically ignoring the denial of rights to our fellow human beings toiling in our own backyards. The war that erupted between two sections of the country, sections as diametrically opposed to each other as the primary colors of red and blue, was the most wretched, hard-fought, emotionally-charged conflict in our history. And the aftermath was just as devastating as the lead-up to the war, with the South feeling itself to be an occupied country, with its "colored" population hardly any better off than they were before the War. Kagan introduces us to characters who were the rock stars of their time (Bono, for example, not Britney). John Quincy Adams emerges from the shadow of a much-respected Founding Father father to become the leading abolitionist in public office. And William Seward, who, alas, has gone down in history attached to the unfortunate moniker "Folly," is revealed as one of New York State's (and the nation's) most principled, distinguished statesmen. (And Seward's Folly? Hardly. The 20th century Cold War would have heated up to a boil if Russia had still maintained a presence in the North America

Robert Kagan's "Dangerous Nation" is a comprehensive and often eye-opening book regarding U.S. foreign policy since pre-Revolutionary War days. Thrusting an arrow into America's notion of "manifest destiny", Kagan sets out, and ultimately succeeds in relating the news that we Americans aren't as noble as we might have thought. Clearly and concisely, the author tells us why. With a timeline as his narrative outline, Kagan begins with a look at America in its infancy, emphasizing a national tentativeness about foreign entanglements as the country tried to build on the successful outcome of the Revolution. England, France and Spain, of course, formed the triumvirate of foreign powers sometimes allying with the United States but often at odds with us. Kagan is very good at describing the balancing act that the early presidents had to achieve with regard to these European nations. As much time as the author spends with the Founding Fathers, this really is more of a book about the actions and reactions of the United States in the nineteenth century and with it, two key figures emerge...John Quincy Adams in the early part of the century and James G. Blaine in the latter part. Both Secretaries of State had vision, insight and political knowledge as to the benefits and pitfalls in which the country might find itself. While much of "Dangerous Nation" is not historically new to American history buffs, there are some added, fascinating insights. Kagan spices up a couple of chapters with a comparison of the foreign policy positions of the administrations of Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison... two men who had widely differing views on how aggressive the United States should be in its outlook on the world. That Democrats and Republicans changed hands in the White House four times in four successive national elections (thereby wrenching foreign policy to and fro) is a great side theme. Kagan ends his first volume (volume two is to be written) with the onset of the Spanish-American War, perhaps, as he puts it, the most popular war in the nation's history. By this time, the United States was already a world power and this was reflected in the nation's attitude toward freeing Cuba from Spain, pushing the frustrated President McKinley (who wanted to stay out of war) into finally taking action. If history is one of life's great lessons, there are many times in "Dangerous Nation" that one reads about the foreign policy mistakes of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that are clearly repeated in America's intervention in Iraq. Overreaching, an effort to establish democracies where they may not be wanted and a will to impose our "goodness" as a nation are just some examples. Robert Kagan has offered a wonderfully thorough book in "Dangerous Nation" and I highly recommend it, especially for its look at how United States foreign policy has been viewed over time from within our own borders and from without.

In this provocative and insightful book the author delves into the history of American foreign policy and proposes the radical suggestion that internationalism is far more in America's historical blood than isolationism. We have been accustomed to think that isolationism, based on Washington's reference to avoiding European alliances, is the national pastime, and it certainly was in certain periods and championed by certain voices. However this book shows that a radical sense of the puritan secular ethic, combined with anti-colonialism led America to challenge the world and that in her history America has always espoused special unique values such as capitalism and democracy. The Civil War is seen as a jumping off place for true American power. This book is not a minute history of American expansion but concentrates on its major theorists and pushers such as the South's view towards expanding to the tropics under Jefferson Davis, Polk, Blaine and others. However there are major oversights. The role of mapmakers and explorers such as Fremont is ignored and it appears there are no maps in the book which makes reference to foreign policy problematic. American foreign policy is fascinating and this book helps to dust off the 19th century, which has been viewed as a time of American isolationism and inward ignorance, and reshape our view to see it as a time when American theories were laid down that put the groundwork together for the policies of Wilson and FDR, as well as Reagan, Kennedy and Bush. A brilliant work, a needed contribution. Seth J. Frantzman