The Return of History and the End of Dreams (Vintage) - Softcover

Kagan, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 030738988X ISBN 13: 9780307389886

Publisher: Vintage, 2009

Synopsis

Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. The world remains "unipolar," but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict, and a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics.For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.

About this title

Review

"Brief and wonderfully argued. . . . [Kagan] has a message for Americans of all political stripes." --The New York Times Book Review

"Important, timely, and superbly written. Robert Kagan shows that the 'end of history' was an illusion. . . . A wake-up call." --Senator John McCain

"Bracing. . . . Extraordinarily rich and suggestive." --Commentary

"Robert Kagan is the reigning pundit of great power politics." --Times Literary Supplement

"Robert Kagan has once again written a provocative, thoughtful, and vitally important book that will reshape the way we think about the world."--Senator Joseph Lieberman

"An eloquent, powerful, disturbing, but ultimately hopeful view of the emerging balance of power in the world-and America's proper role in it. Kagan's views will be an essential part of the debate that will shape our next president's foreign policy."--Richard Holbrooke, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

"Robert Kagan gives us a picture of the world today in all its complexity and its simplicity. This is a world where America is dominant but cannot dominate, where the struggle for power and prestige goes on as it always has. Power is at the service of ideas, but the key ideas are also ideas about power: democracy and autocracy. All this in a hundred pages, with style, energy and panache."--Robert Cooper, Director-General for External and Politico-Military Affairs at the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union

Book Description

'In this important, timely, and superblywritten book, Robert Kagan shows that the "end of history" was an illusion. Today's global challenges pose a stern test for the world's democracies. This book is a wake-up call and should be read by policymakers, politicians, pundits and all who want a guide to the dangerous waters of 21st century geopolitics.' Senator John McCain

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 030738988X
• ISBN 13: 9780307389886
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128