Murdock (a senior fellow in the International Security Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies) argues that the U.S. strategic thinking has largely been ad hoc in the post-Cold War era and recommends a focus on improving the strategic competency of national security practitioners, including the President, his National Security Adviser, the Secretaries of State and Defense, and others. After some introductory remarks of strategic "dos and don'ts" he presents a series of ten case studies illustrating recent strategic successes and failures (mostly the latter) including the 1990s intervention in Haiti, WTO negotiations 1990, Taiwan policy, the Bosnian conflict, the Mexican peso bailout, and the Rwandan genocide. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) Read Less