Present Dangers - Crisis and Opportunity in America’s Foreign and Defense Policy

This original collection of essays offers hope to those who believe that the cause of world peace requires a new American foreign policy and repairing our depleted military. The twelve contributors to this book show why America must take another look at our possible adversaries and real strategic partners. Present Dangers offers practical strategies for policymakers eager to disarm adversaries like North Korea and Iraq and head off the terrorist threat. Intellectuals, historians and policy-makers such as James Ceasar, Ross Munro, Peter Rodman, Richard Perle, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Nicholas Eberstadt, Jeffrey Gedmin, Aaron Friedberg, Elliott Abrams, Frederick Kagan, Willliam Schneider, William Bennett, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Kagan all challenge America to make sure that foreign affairs, a sleeping issue for the last eight years, gets a wake-up call in election year 2000. Two leading advocates of "conservative internationalism" in foreign policy assemble a like-minded group of deep thinkers in Present Dangers. According to the editors--Robert Kagan of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and William Kristol of The Weekly Standard--America's most significant threats come from within, rather than without. They worry that "the United States, the world's dominant power on whom the maintenance of international peace and the support of liberal democratic principles depends, will shrink its responsibilities and--in a fit of absentmindedness, or parsimony, or indifference--allow the international order that it created and sustains to collapse." As might be expected, the Clinton administration comes in for a thrashing on these pages. Ross H. Munro, an expert on China, writes: "However history judges [President] Clinton, the assessment of how his administration dealt with a rising China is certain to be harsh." In a chapter on Russia, Peter W. Rodman slams the Clintonites for "sentimentality," an "absurd doctrinal fetish" with arms control, and "an unwillingness to assert major American strategic interests and impose a penalty for harm done to them, lest the poor Russians feel hurt." There are other essays, too: Richard N. Perle on Iraq, Elliott Abrams on the Middle East, and William J. Bennett on the importance of morality and character in foreign policy. Clear thinking and straightforward writing mark each chapter. As a whole, Present Dangers is an excellent primer on how a Republican foreign policy might look in the early years of the 21st century. But to be sure, a Republican foreign policy would not inevitably look this way; in one of the book's best sections, James W. Caesar examines the realist and isolationist schools of conservative thought and contrasts them with the view expressed throughout Present Dangers. Yet this is a strong and convincing call for "a strong commitment to vigorous American global leadership, to American power, and to the advancement of American democratic and free-market principles abroad." --John J. Miller --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Antologi. Indeholder en beskrivelse og vurdering af USA's sikkerhedspolitiske situation efter afslutningen af Den Kolde rig og Desert Storm under Golfkrigen i 1999, som har medført, at USA som den eneste supermagt vil være uden udfordringer i mange år fremover. Bemærk at bogen er skrevet før 11. september 2001 og invasionen af Irak i 2003. Forfatterne mener, at USA må skabe en ny international orden mhp. at beskytte sine interesser og bidrage til at skabe nye demokratier rundt om i verden. Bogen er inddelt i fire hovedafsnit således: I: An Overview(National Interest and Global Responsibility; The Great Divide: American Internationalism and its Opponents). II: The Mounting Threat (China:The Challenge of a Rising Power; Russia: The Challenge of a Failing Power; Iraq: Saddam Unbound; Iran: Fundamentalism and Reform; North Korea: Beyond Appeasement). III: Allies and Military Assets (Europe and NATO; Asian Allies: True Strategic Partners; Israel and "The Peace Process"; The Decline of America's Armed Forces; Weapons Proliferation and Missile Defense: The Strategic Case). IV: American Leadership: Strength and Principle (Morality, Character and American Foreign Policy; Statemanship in the New Century; Strength and Will: A Historical Perspective) Introduction: National interest and global responsibility / William Kristol & Robert Kagan The great divide: American internationalism and its opponents / James W. Ceasar China: the challenge of a rising power / Ross H. Munro Russia: the challenge of a failing power / Peter W. Rodman Iraq: Saddam challenge of a failing power / Peter W. Rodman Iraq: Saddam Reuel Marc Gerecht North Korea: beyond appeasement / Nicholas Eberstadt Europe and NATO: saving the alliance / Jeffrey Gedmin Asian allies: true strategic partners / Aaron L. Friedberg Israel and the "peace process" / Elliott Abrams The decline of America's armed forces / Frederick W. Kagan Weapons proliferation and missile defense: the strategic case / William Schneider Morality, character and American foreign policy / William J. Bennett Statesmanship in the new century / Paul Wolfowitz Strength and will: a historical perspective / Donald Kagan Includes twelve essays from intellectuals, historians and policy-makers that challenge America to take a hard look at the coming crises in our foreign policy. This work presents a case for repairing our depleted military, for a crash program of missile defense, and for a rethinking of whom our possible adversaries and real strategic partners are.