Walter Russell Mead

Det var inte länge sedan idén om att vi nått historiens slut vann kraft och spridning: tanken att människans sociokulturella evolution nått fram till en punkt där den knappast kunde nå längre. Ett kvartssekel senare verkar denna optimism ha försvunnit. I stället bevittnar vi nu geopolitikens återkomst. Ett tjugotal experter utforskar i denna antologi hur vi hamnade där vi är idag men också vart vi kan tänkas vara på väg. Huvudredaktörer är Kurt Almqvist och Alexander Linklater.

A stunningly insightful account of the global political and economic system, sustained first by Britain and now by America, that has created the modern world. The key to the two countries' predominance, Mead argues, lies in the individualistic ideology inherent in the Anglo-American religion. Over the years Britain and America's liberal democratic system has been repeatedly challeged--by Catholic Spain and Louis XIV, the Nazis, communists, and Al Qaeda--and for the most part, it has prevailed. But the current conflicts in the Middle East threaten to change that record unless we foster a deeper understanding of the conflicts between the liberal world system and its foes.

An authority on foreign affairs takes a timely and incisive look at the foreign policy of the Bush administration and how it differs from America's historic approach to global issues, analyzing its repercussions both at home and abroad and presenting a definitive plan for the steps that the U. S. must take before the war on terror spins out of control. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.

"God has a special providence for fools, drunks and the United States of America."--Otto von Bismarck America's response to the September 11 attacks spotlighted many of the country's longstanding goals on the world stage: to protect liberty at home, to secure America's economic interests, to spread democracy in totalitarian regimes and to vanquish the enemy utterly. One of America's leading foreign policy thinkers, Walter Russell Mead, argues that these diverse, conflicting impulses have in fact been the key to the U. S.'s success in the world. In a sweeping new synthesis, Mead uncovers four distinct historical patterns in foreign policy, each exemplified by a towering figure from our past. Wilsonians are moral missionaries, making the world safe for democracy by creating international watchdogs like the U. N. Hamiltonians likewise support international engagement, but their goal is to open foreign markets and expand the economy. Populist Jacksonians support a strong military, one that should be used rarely, but then with overwhelming force to bring the enemy to its knees. Jeffersonians, concerned primarily with liberty at home, are suspicious of both big military and large-scale international projects. A striking new vision of America's place in the world, Special Providence transcends stale debates about realists vs. idealists and hawks vs. doves to provide a revolutionary, nuanced, historically-grounded view of American foreign policy.