Foreign & International Law - General & Miscellaneous, September 11th Terrorist Attacks, 2001, International Relations - General & Miscellaneous, Presidents of the United States - Biography, U.S. Diplomatic Relations - General & Miscellaneous, Imperialism

Imperial America

Name: Imperial America
Author: John Newhouse
ISBN: 9780375713729

by John Newhouse

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Overview

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, most of the world was ready to accept American leadership in a war against terrorism. Yet within a year the United States was estranged from its allies and enmeshed in a costly and increasingly deadly occupation of Iraq, while virtually ignoring potentially great threats from other parts of the world. In this measured but forcefully argued book, the distinguished foreign correspondent John Newhouse shows what went wrong.

Timely, knowledgeable, and filled with vivid portraits of such figures as George W. Bush Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney, Imperial America is an indispensable book.

About the Author, John Newhouse

John Newhouse covered foreign policy for The New Yorker throughout the 1980s and early 1990s and wrote numerous profiles of world figures. He has served the U.S. government as assistant director of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency and was senior policy adviser for European affairs in the State Department during the second half of the Clinton administration. His books include Europe Adrift and War and Peace in the Nuclear Age. He is currently a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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Editorials

The New York Times

As the burdens of stabilizing Iraq mount, many Americans are wondering whether their government has gone off course. John Newhouse's indictment of President Bush's foreign policy thus appears at an opportune moment, offering a lucid and accessible account of how he says the administration has done more to imperil the United States than to enhance its security. — Charles D. Kupchan

The Washington Post

Newhouse details the urgent tasks that faced President Bush after September 2001 -- in the Middle East, North Korea and Iran, not to mention Pakistan and India -- and explains how the preoccupation with Saddam Hussein got in the way of tackling them, which it undoubtedly did. Newhouse is persuasive and thorough here, though some would challenge his optimism about Iran's unconvincing reformers, and many would be more pessimistic about Tehran's nuclear weapons and missile programs, especially in the light of recent revelations. — Peter Hitchens

Library Journal

It's a sure bet that library catalogers will soon be able to recite from memory the LC and Dewey numbers assigned to analyses of the foreign policy of George W. Bush. Among the early books to reach them will be this group of interconnected essays by Newhouse (Europe Adrift), a senior fellow at Washington, DC's Center for Defense Information. Newhouse, who has been a foreign correspondent for The New Yorker and a State Department official in the Clinton administration, writes that an incurious Bush has taken heedless risks while wasting unprecedented post-9/11 opportunities to strengthen the world order. His actions, writes Newhouse, are informed by "one man's take on moral clarity" and guided by a circle of right-wing advisers with a "disdain for diplomacy" and an "obsession with Iraq." Newhouse addresses Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Israel and Palestine, Europe, and the country he believes to be the most dangerous of all, Pakistan. The result is an intelligent critique but one delivered in a clubby insider's tone that will limit the book's appeal. An optional purchase for public and academic libraries.-Robert F. Nardini, Chichester, NH Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.