America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy - Hardcover

Daalder, Ivo H; Lindsay, James M

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1620458314 ISBN 13: 9781620458310

Publisher: Trade Paper Press, 2005

Synopsis

A splendidly illuminating book.
-The New York Times

Like it or not, 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 once imposed on its freedom of action. In America Unbound, Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay caution that the Bush revolution comes with serious risks-and, at some point, we may find that America's friends and allies will refuse to follow his lead, leaving the U.S. unable to achieve its goals. This edition has been extensively revised and updated to include major policy changes and developments since the book's original publication.

About this title

Review

"As Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay say in their new book, America Unbound, the move to a doctrine of pre-emption or preventive war is a true revolution in American foreign policy, despite its roots in the foreign policies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson" --Gerald Beller, West Virginia State College, "The Charleston Gazette", 2/10/2004

.".. a reasoned, well-documented analysis of the origins and evolution of the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration.... This book seems written for a mass audience.... Recommended." --C.W. Herrick, Muhlenberg College, "Choice", 6/1/2004

"Mr. Bush is widely seen, abroad if not at home, as a bonehead with more brawn than brain who has little control over his administration, especially of the neoconservatives who seem to exert such influence within it. This view is rubbish, argue Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay, both scholars at American think-tanks. Mr. Bush is his own man; he sees himself as the chief executive officer of a huge enterprise and acts accordingly; he has a world view and a clear idea of how america should fit into it; and he is no fool." -- "The Economist", 12/20/2003

"So what, one might ask. Has the US not put Saddam Hussein in prison and forced Colonel Muammer Gadaffi to abandon his programme for making weapons of mass destruction? Indeed, it has. Force works. But it will not, on its own, achieve the democratic transformation the US now seeks. As Ivo Daalder and James M. Lindsay argue in an important study of the administration's foreign policy: 'The Iraq experience underscored that how America led mattered as much as whether it led.'" --Martin Wolf, "Financial Times", 12/24/2003

"AMERICA UNBOUND is the most ambitious and important study in this batch, not least because the authors painstakingly develop the provocative thesis that the president is not the Dubya of cartoonists, a dim puppet of a cabal of old-guard hawks and neocons, but the master puppeteer himself....The research is admirable, the arguments are well marshaled, and the absence of stridency adds considerable authority to the portrayal of Bush as a president whose 'worldview simply made no allowance for others' doubting the purity of American motives.'" --Serge Schmemann, International Herald Tribune, "The New York Times Book Review", 1/25/2004

"Reprint of The Washington Times/UPI article." --Martin Sieff, United Press International, "The San Diego Union-Tribune", 12/28/2003

"Reprint of The Washington Times article." --Martin Sieff, United Press International, "United Press International", 12/26/2003

"[A] lucid and concise account of what the authors call 'the Bush revolution' in foreign affairs....It is doubtful that another book will come along soon that covers all the important points of the administrations's foreign policy with more clarity and evenhandedness." --Joshua Micah Marshall, "Foreign Affairs", 11/1/2003

"Daalder and Lindsay argue that despite the lack of knowledge about foreign policy Bush revealed during the 2000 campaign, his views are well formed and held with deep conviction....[They] conclude that the Bush revolution is only a partial one, and is best understood as changing the way the United States conducts foreign policy, not the goals of foreign policy." --Alan Wolfe, Boston College, "Commonweal", 12/5/2003

"As Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay argue cogently in their new book "America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in American Foreign Policy", the Iraq policy and the whole unilateralist and pre-empt strategy doctrine that underlay it were not forced on a weak, inexperienced and vacillating president by dominant figures pulling his strings. These policies were eagerly adopted by a gung-ho, supremely confident president who was convinced he had the broad picture right and who sees the world in uncompromising Manichean terms of black and white, right and wrong." --Martin Sieff, United Press International, "Washington Times", 12/26/2003

From the Back Cover

Winner of the 2003 Lionel Gelber Prize A Foreign Affairs Bestseller "The commentary is judicious, the language sober, and given that both Daalder and Lindsay served in the Clinton White House and that Daalder was recently an advisor to Howard Dean the measured tone invests the book with that much more credibility." The Washington Post "America Unbound deserves the closest attention. The research is admirable, the arguments are well marshaled, and the absence of stridency adds considerable authority to the portrayal of Bush as a president whose worldview simply made no allowance for others′ doubting the purity of American motives." Serge Schmemann, The New York Times Book Review "A provocative and original thesis and also a caution to those who have underestimated George W. Bush′s decisive and historic impact on the course of American foreign policy." Robert Kagan, author, Of Paradise and Power "It is doubtful that another book will come along soon that covers all the important points of the administration′s foreign policy with more clarity and evenhandedness." Joshua Micah Marshall, Foreign Affairs "For those seeking to understand the Bush foreign policy and not merely to denounce it, this informative book will be highly useful." Ronald Steel, The Nation "A useful analysis. . . . Their emphasis is less on the shift to preventive war than on the administration′s doctrinaire analysis and its moralistic arrogance." Arthur Schlesinger Jr., The New York Review of Books "America Unbound is refreshingly original and it makes the case for President Bush as the master of his own unilateralist revolution. Future examinations of Bush foreign policy will be measured against this authoritative book." Daniel Schorr, National Public Radio A Brookings Institution Book

Edition details

• Publisher: Trade Paper Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1620458314
• ISBN 13: 9781620458310
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 272