To Lead the World: American Strategy After the Bush Doctrine

This book is a compilation of essays by a group of distinguished scholars from the fields of political science, economics, and history. Their purpose is to examine a set of options for creating a U.S. Grand Strategy for the 21st Century that would guide both foreign policy and national security policy. This is a pretty tall order, but the contributors to this book have done a pretty good job of presenting potential strategic paths to both a safer and more prosperous U.S. and the world. As might be imagined the approaches these contributors suggest for building a national security strategy are quite diverse, yet there are threads of commonality that give this book as a whole a certain coherence. For example all the contributors would probably agree with Samantha Power who argues in Chapter 6 that the U.S. needs to regain international legitimacy by returning to a recognition and obedience to international law and widely recognized international agreements and treaties. Most would also agree with her that the concepts of the,"Global War on Terror" have been largely counter productive and should be dropped. It is hoped that most would agree with her that the Dar al Islam (Realm of Islam) is not monolithic and that U.S. policies towards it should be guided by much improved intelligence that would provide accurate knowledge of this complex Realm. Also most would agree with Stephen Van Evera who opens this book with the assertion that a U.S. Grand Strategy should incorporate three policies: 1) create and sustain an alliance of the major powers (U.S., China, European Union, Russia, Japan?) dedicated to protecting the global commons from manmade and natural threats; 2) the U.S. should direct its national security establishment against trans-national terrorism and WMD proliferation rather than against near peer national states; and 3) direct its national security establishment against threats to the global common caused by environmental degradation and pandemics. Yet not all agree with Van Evera that the three policies he outlines are enough. A significant proportion of the contributors in one way or another also argue that U.S. national security is enhanced if an economically integrated, prosperous, and relativity democratic world order can be established. There is rather more disagreement on the importance and roles of inter-national and non-governmental institutions in contributing to U.S. national security, but the subject is well and fairly covered in this book. This certainly is one of the more interesting and serious books on the arcane topic of formulating a national grand strategy and well worth reading and contemplating.

For some years there has been a trend towards presenting foreign relations books through a collection of essays written by eminent academicians on the subject. The result has been that such books like the present one may become good reference book for interested readers and foreign policy makers but they don't go beyond that. General readers need more lucid and interesting presentations written by any single author. Mere works of compilation, like this one may be more scholarly in that it is the consummation of views, though different ones, of foreign policy experts but in the end the reader is left with too many alternative viewpoints to choose from. Nevertheless, it is an extremely useful book and contains valuable insights into matters of international relations and must be widely read. Gautam Maitra Author of 'Tracing the Eagle's Orbit: Illuminating Insights into Major US Foreign Policies Since Independence.'

I came across this book by accident and am extremely happy that I did. The subject of foreign policy wouldn't be the first thing that most people would think of when they look for some light reading; and this book is far from light reading. It is a collection of diverse ideas by 13 of America's leading academic minds on the subject that challenges the reader to open their eyes to a much larger field that will soon engulf us all, if not crush us if we don't get our act straight. Over the course of 11 articles (some are collaborative) the authors give their take on what they feel will be some of the greatest challenges that face our country when a new administration goes to the White House in 2009. Some of will be problems that have been festering for decades others are very recent but all have been fed by the foreign policy decisions of the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks that are collectively called the Bush Doctrine. The well thought out arguments for and against certain actions are a joy to read because they lack political emotionality and demonstrate an adherence to facts as well as historical trends. Sometimes it's nice to hear big ideas from people who actually know what their talking about, even if I don't agree with them. Pros: 1.) Every one of the articles offers different ideas that are stimulating and provocative. 2.) If you're looking for a book on the subject of American foreign affairs since 1945, there isn't one out there with a better pedigree 3.) Doesn't pull any punches. Some of the writers make observations that wouldn't be popular with Jane and John Q Public. Cons: 1.) NOT A QUICK READ! You better strap yourself in for this one, but the complex future of our world demands more attention from the average citizen. 2.) I'm sure some people are going to immediately be turned off by the list of professors from Harvard, Princeton, Berkley, etc. They will instantly think that this is a hatchet job by a bunch of academic elites that are pushing some liberal agenda (which they aren't). THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT NEED TO READ THIS BOOK THE MOST! What's made clear in this book is that the future of our country depends on the engagement and literacy of our citizens. We can no longer afford to think attempt 20th century repairs on 21st century problems.