The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might - Hardcover

Soderberg, Nancy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471656836 ISBN 13: 9780471656838

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2005

Synopsis

For eight years, Nancy Soderberg served with distinction and creativity at the highest levels of American government. She is uniquely positioned to explain how the world works in this new era-and when it's in danger of breaking down.
—Dr. Madeleine K. Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State

Are there limits to American power? The neoconservative brain trust behind the Bush administration's foreign policy doesn't seem to recognize any. For the first time, we have people in power who believe that as the world's reigning superpower, America can do what it wants, when it wants, without regard to allies, costs, or results. But as events in Iraq are proving, America may be powerful, but it is not all-powerful.

In practice, no country could ever be strong enough to solve problems like Somalia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq through purely military means. In the future, America's power will constantly be called up to help failed and failing states, and it is becoming clear that the complex mess of Somalia has replaced the proxy war of Vietnam as the model for what future military conflicts will look like: a failed state, a power vacuum, armed factions, and enough chaos to panic an entire region. Using vivid examples from her years in the White House and at the United Nations, Nancy Soderberg demonstrates why military force is not always effective, why allies and consensus-building are crucial, and how the current administration's faulty world view has adversely affected policies toward Israel, Iraq, North Korea, Haiti, Africa, and Al-Qaeda. Powerful, provocative, and persuasive, this timely book demonstrates that the future of America's security depends on overcoming the superpower myth.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Are there limits to American power? The neoconservative brain trust behind the Bush administration don't seem to recognize any. After the cold war, many Americans—on both sides of the aisle—have come to mistakenly believe that the United States has become powerful enough to do whatever it wants, wherever it wants, without regard to allies, costs, or results. But as events in Iraq are proving, America may be incredibly powerful, but it is not all powerful.

Drawing on her eight years as a high-ranking official in the Clinton administration, Nancy Soderberg takes you behind the scenes in the highest echelons of government to examine how the president and his advisors responded to the challenge of shaping a new foreign policy for the post–cold war era. She cites personal recollections, recently declassified documents, and interviews with the principals involved in these decisions to provide insight into the decision-making process that all presidents face—often in crisis situations without complete information and with lives hanging in the balance.

Soderberg carefully contrasts Clinton's approach—as it evolved from a shaky start in Somalia and Haiti, through peacemaking efforts in Ireland and the Middle East, to a carefully crafted blend of diplomacy, force, leadership, and cooperation in Bosnia and Kosovo—with Bush's embrace of the superpower myth, which holds that America is powerful enough to bend the world to its will, largely through unilateral force, whether that goal is spreading democracy, ending terrorism, avoiding nuclear war, maintaining homeland security, or creating peace. The only uncertainty the Bush administration feels it faces is when and where to act.

As The Superpower Myth makes startlingly clear, no country, in practice, could ever be strong enough to solve problems like Somalia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan through purely military means. In the future, America's power will constantly be called upon to help failed and failing states, and it is becoming clear that the complex mess of Somalia (and now Iraq) has replaced the proxy war of Vietnam as the model for what future military conflicts will look like: a failed state, a power vacuum, armed factions, and enough chaos to threaten an entire region. Using vivid examples from her years in the White House and at the United Nations, Nancy Soderberg demonstrates why military force alone is not always effective, why allies and consensus-building are crucial, and how the current administration's faulty worldview has adversely affected policies toward Israel, Iraq, North Korea, Haiti, Africa, and al Qaeda.

Powerful, provocative, and persuasive, this timely book demonstrates that the future of America's security depends on overcoming the superpower myth.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Superpower Myth

"What America can—and cannot—accomplish purely on its own has become the central question of U.S. foreign policy. Nancy Soderberg offers a sensible, hard-headed, realistic alternative to the excesses of America's Iraq-era dealings with the world."
—James Fallows, National Correspondent The Atlantic Monthly

"Both a memoir and analysis, this fascinating account by a White House insider tells how to marshal the full strength of American power beyond our unrivalled military."
—Joseph S. Nye Jr., author of Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics

"In The Superpower Myth, Nancy Soderberg tackles the most important question the United States has faced since the end of the cold war: how and to what end do we use our military and economic supremacy? Her argument shows, among other things, how George W. Bush ignored the answers that the Clinton administration had begun to develop to this question. She provides a very useful memoir of the Clinton years and a compelling critique of the Bush administration."
—John B. Judis, Senior Editor, The New Republic and author of The Folly of Empire

"For eight years, Nancy Soderberg served with distinction and creativity at the highest levels of American government. She is uniquely positioned to explain how the world works in this new era—and when it's in danger of breaking down."
—Dr. Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of State

"The Superpower Myth exposes the essential fallacy of those who believe that because America is the most powerful country in the world, it can go about its business without regard for the views of others. Soderberg's argument that we must engage the world in concert with others speaks to an essential truth that we ignore at our own peril."
—Ivo H. Daalder, coauthor of America Unbound

Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0471656836
• ISBN 13: 9780471656838
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416