Masters of Illusion: American Leadership in the Media Age - Hardcover

Rosefielde, Steven; Mills, D. Quinn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521857449 ISBN 13: 9780521857444

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006

Synopsis

The United States will confront a series of fundamental challenges through the middle of the twenty-first century. Using a theory of economic systems to gauge present and future global conflicts, Steven Rosefielde and D. Quinn Mills see the challenges as posed sequentially by terrorism, Russia, China, and the European Union. In the cases of terrorism, Russia, and China, Western leaders appreciate aspects of these perils, but they are crafting unduly soft policies to deal with the challenges. The authors believe that 'globalists' notwithstanding, such views are myopic in an era where nuclear proliferation has invalidated the concept of mutually assured destruction. What America requires is a new security concept that the authors call 'strategic independence' to enable keeping the peace in dangerous times and foster new generations of leaders capable of acting sanely despite a current public culture addicted to wishful thinking.

About this title

Review:

"While too many writers offer the public mixed cocktails, Rosefielde and Mills have given us a cold glass of pure spring water. Numerous sacred cows are slaughtered with relish and many idols of the tribe are gleefully smashed. On every page readers will be delighted, provoked, aroused, or enraged, but most of all stimulated to think. This truly iconoclastic work is a book that will provoke what hopefully will be a long lasting debate here and abroad."
Professor Stephen Blank, Strategic Studies Institute, US Army War College

"Government think tanks around the world are working on policies how to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Professors Rosefielde and Mills' book addresses the need for a new American agenda for strength and security for the beginning of this century. It is provoking and challenging, and necessary to read!"
Jan Rylander, Chairman of Research and Technology of WEAO, Western European Union

"Masters of Illusion is an exceptional achievement and a fascinating read. It presents a compelling analysis in depth of world affairs and political-economic-strategic trends that greatly challenge the security and well-being of the United States. It also contains a cogent critique of American leadership and certain illusions that often misdirect policy. This is the best single book on international trends that I have read in a long time."
William Van Cleave, Dept. of Defense & Strategic Studies, Missouri State University

"Coming from outside the mainstream of conventional political-science discussions, Rosefielde and Mills offer what might be called a post-neoconservative book: Rejecting both the Bush Administration’s neoconservative foreign and defense policies and the liberal alternatives, the authors advocate a strategic posture which they argue is ’best in future prospect for ourselves and the world.’"
J. Peter Pham, director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs at James Madison University, The National Interest

Book Description:

Masters of Illusion provides a vigorous assessment of the forces that will buffet the United States and the global order over the next half century. The analysis differs radically from other assessments by using economic systems theory to identify potential conflicts that so-called 'globalists' have missed.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0521857449
• ISBN 13: 9780521857444
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 568