Wilson's Ghost: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century

A passionate manifesto on what exactly we can and must do to prevent devastating global conflicts in the century ahead.

Woodrow Wilson's vision of a collective international action to resist aggressive conflict after the carnage of World War I failed tragically. Over 160 million people died in war during the 20th century, and in Wilson's Ghost, Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight put forth a decisive, multi-faceted action program for realizing Wilson's dream during this century. The plan begins with a moral imperative that establishes as a major goal of foreign policy across the globe the avoidance of war. To that end, enforcement entails only multilateral intervention on the part of the United States; full reconciliation with Russia and China to integrate those nations into relations with the other Great Powers; restructuring the United Nations to greater effectiveness; defining and deterring war crimes; creating UN enforcement; and finally, reducing nuclear danger by eliminating the huge arsenal held by the United States and Russia, and by signing into law the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. The authors support their plan with specific, achievable steps that can begin now to ensure a more peaceful 21st century.

Robert S. McNamara was president of the Ford Motor Company, secretary of defense to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and president of the World Bank. He is the author of In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam, and co-author of Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy. James G. Blight is professor of international relations (research) at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, and the author or editor of a dozen books on the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, including Argument Without End.