International relations Books & Reviews

America Under the Caesars

Anti-interventionists allege our leaders traded a strong, austere republic for a weak and sprawling empire predicated on a military might that could not match our own ambitions. This narrative negates real threats and real victories.

Missiles Over Tskhinvali

Last summer, Russia and Georgia came to blows. Tbilisi’s pro-American president believed NATO would protect him in a fight with the big, bad bear.

The Willing Misinterpreter

Despite Goldhagen's extraordinary claims, he himself concedes in his unwittingly revealing afterword that he is not presenting much in the way of original research.

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying

From the bikini to the doomsday clock, with the advent of nuclear weapons everything around us seemed to change. Contrarian political scientist John Mueller takes issue with this conventional view of the Atomic Age.

The Soviet Abroad

A book by former–Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov gives an insider’s account of espionage and intrigue in the Middle East.

Heirs of Sargon

Iraq has a long and tortured history. Home to the tyrant, the origins of despotism lie in the primordial ooze of the Mesopotamian swamp. Yet for a brief moment fifty years ago, the land of two rivers experienced democracy.

The Laws of War

Stopping torture and changing the policies of the Bush administration may not be enough. With a whole new type of terrorist bred from extraordinary rendition and torture, the last eight years may well prove inescapable.

Machiavelli Revisited

With great power comes great responsibility. But Washington is adrift and our country in search of a strategy. Foreign-policy heavyweight Les Gelb wittily channels a master to update the classic realpolitik definition of power.

Terror In Extremis

The Tao of the Arab Center

The Bush administration may have gotten a lot wrong, but there is still hope for America’s policy in the Middle East. Three books shed some light on how the United States can get over Iraq.

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May 26, 2012