Description
Argues that America's foreign policy under the Bush administration has gone astray not only because of incompetence, but also because of misconceptions about world politics, the nature of warfare, democracy, and other so-called "Daydreamer" beliefs.
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Kaplan (writer of the "War Stories" column in Slate) criticizes the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration as having been founded on a few grand misconceptions of American power and America's place in the world. First of all, he declares, the world did not change after September 11th. The nature of power, warfare, and politics among nations remained essentially the same. Furthermore, emerging from the Cold War as the world's "sole superpower" made the United States weaker, not stronger, because there was no longer a threat to keep US allies in line. The United States therefore needed to work harder at diplomacy in order to keep allies on board because it wasn't actually possible to "shock and awe" the world simply through overwhelming military might and advanced military technology. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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