America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy - Hardcover

Lindsay, James M.; Daalder, Ivo H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0815716885 ISBN 13: 9780815716884

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 2003

Synopsis

George W. Bush has launched a revolution in American foreign policy. He has redefined how America engages the world, shedding the constraints that friends, allies, and international institutions impose on its freedom of action. He has insisted that an America unbound is a more secure America. How did a man once mocked for knowing little about the world come to be a foreign policy revolutionary? In America Unbound, Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay dismiss claims that neoconservatives have captured the heart and mind of the president. They show that George W. Bush has been no one's puppet. He has been a strong and decisive leader with a coherent worldview that was evident even during the 2000 presidential campaign. Daalder and Lindsay caution that the Bush revolution comes with significant risks. Raw power alone is not enough to preserve and extend America's security and prosperity in the modern world. The United States often needs the help of others to meet the challenges it faces overseas. But Bush's revolutionary impulse has stirred great resentment abroad. At some point, Daalder and Lindsay warn, Bush could find that America's friends and allies refuse to follow his lead. America will then stand alone a great power unable to achieve its most important goals.

About this title

About the Author

Ivo H. Daalder is a senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies and the Sydney Stein Jr. Chair in International Security at the Brookings Institution. He is the coauthor, with James M. Lindsay, of America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy (Brookings, 2003) and the coauthor of Winning Ugly: NATO's War to Save Kosovo (Brookings, 2001), written with Michael E. O'Hanlon. James M. Lindsay is vice president and director of studies of the Council on Foreign Relations, where he holds the Maurice R. Greenberg Chair. He was previously deputy director and senior fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. His books include Agenda for the Nation (Brookings 2003) and Defending America: The Case for Limited National Missile Defense (Brookings 2001). In 1996-97, Lindsay was director for global issues and multilateral affairs on the National Security Council staff.

Reviews

Hailing President George W. Bush as the architect of a radical new foreign policy, the authors are clearly impressed with America's recent display of muscle. They do not, however, acknowledge critics who claim the Bush revolution may merely be a recycling of failed doctrines of colonialism and interventionism. Still, though most contemporary analysts credit the president's advisors with designing current foreign-policy practices, Daalder and Lindsay insist that Bush himself is in charge. If we have become a lone-wolf nation, it is because of his belief that an unfettered and aggressive America is both secure and capable of altering the international status quo for the better. After outlining the nuances of this new nationalist strategy, its challenges, rewards, and risks are analyzed in detail, providing foreign-policy wonks with plenty of material for debate. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0815716885
• ISBN 13: 9780815716884
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 246