| Review of: | Security first: for a muscular, moral foreign policy by Amitai Etzioni Regime change: US strategy through the prism of 9/11 by Robert Litwak |
|---|---|
| Reviewed By: | Joshua W. Walker |
| Reviewed in: | International Affairs |
| Date accepted online: | 10/04/2008 |
| Published in print: | Volume 83, Issue 06, Pages 1193-1234 |
Book Reviews: North America
Two new books by eminent scholars in the field of international relations have been published dealing specifically with George W. Bush's post-9/11 foreign policy. They are entering a debate in which scholars are only now beginning to examine the extent and historical scope of the changes and the degree to which the second Bush administration's ideology has shaped US foreign policy for the long-term. Each book, to varying degrees, speaks directly to the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption, prevention, and regime change. Drawing largely from recent historical case-studies while focusing predominantly on the cases of Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea, these books are a welcome addition to the ongoing debate surrounding the Bush administration's foreign policy past, present and future.
In
The most convincing part of the book comes at the beginning as the author sets out to defend his 'Security first' thesis as being both realistic and principled. Using Libya as the best case example, Etzioni tries to apply a similar strategy for dealing with Iran and North Korea. Resisting typical international relations labels such as liberal or realist, political labels of left or right, Etzioni employs a sociological approach in discussing the pragmatic reasons for the fundamental recasting of US foreign policy. The author tries to chart a middle ground between the 'unrealistic' course of democratization and the 'unethical' one of supporting oppressive regimes that the US has employed at different points in its history.
Moving beyond the pragmatic business of US foreign policy-making, the author devotes a considerable amount of the book to making the case that security rests on a shared moral culture. Walking the reader through the major world faiths of Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, Etzioni attempts to show that Islam is no different at its core level and shares a similar moral culture. Trying to tie in his original argument for security first, the author argues that the key for US policy in the Middle East is to win over the 'illiberal moderates' who do not want democratization but share a desire for security and freedom for religious space without imposition of beliefs from either ardent Islamists or secularists. While each of Etzioni's arguments is individually interesting, they fail to work together towards building a coherent framework for foreign policy-making.
After the completion of
In contrast to Etzioni's broad, bird's eye view of America's international roles and responsibilities, Robert Litwak takes a more narrowly constructed approach in his book
Providing a comprehensive and readable history of regime change throughout history, Litwak demonstrates that the strategy of containment adopted during the Cold War was in fact a strategy of regime change. Building upon Cold War historiographies written by scholars such as John Lewis Gaddis or practitioners such as George Kennan, Litwak writes about the transformation of post-Cold War US foreign policy under the Bush administration. Containment called for the balancing of Soviet military power while simultaneously seeking to exploit and highlight the internal contradictions endemic to the Soviet Union. In contrast to this multifaceted approach the author demonstrates that the US's experiences with rogue states in which the Bush administration has called for regime change have been far less successful. Drawing implications and lessons from the four case-studies of Iran, Iraq, Libya and North Korea, Litwak clearly advocates the Libyan model.
Three main points emerge from
While