 | LawyerBuzz.com Navigation | |
|
|
| |
| Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global Ambition | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert W. Merry
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $0.97
You Save: $25.03 (96%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $0.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  (18 reviews)
Sales Rank: 709466
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0743266676
Dewey Decimal Number: 327.73009
EAN: 9780743266673
ASIN: 0743266676
Publication Date: May 31, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
In Sands of Empire, veteran political journalist and award-winning author Robert W. Merry examines the misguided concepts that have fueled American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The emergence in the George W. Bush administration of America as Crusader State, bent on remaking the world in its preferred image, is dangerous and self-defeating, he points out. Moreover, these grand-scale flights of interventionism, regime change, and the use of pre-emptive armed force are without precedent in American history.Merry offers a spirited description of a powerful political core whose ideas have replaced conservative reservations about utopian visions -- these neocons who "embrace a brave new world in which American exceptionalism holds sway," imagining that others around the globe can be made to abandon their cultures in favor of our ideals. He traces the strains of Wilsonism that have now merged into an adventurous and hazardous foreign policy, particularly as described by William Kristol, Francis Fukuyama, Max Boot, and Paul Wolfowitz, among others. He examines the challenge of Samuel Huntington's supposition that the clash of civilizations defines present and future world conflict. And he rejects the notion of The New York Times's Thomas L. Friedman that America is not only the world's role model for globally integrated free-market capitalism, but that it has a responsibility to foster, support, and sustain globalization worldwide. From the first president Bush to Clinton to the second Bush presidency, the United States has compromised its global leadership, endangered its security, and failed to meet the standard of justified intervention, Merry suggests. The country must reset its global strategies to protect its interests and the West's, to maintain stability in strategic areas, and to fight radical threats, with arms if necessary. For anything less than these necessities, American blood should remain in American veins.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
Useful essay on some ideas behind US foreign policy May 6, 2008
The author Robert Merry is president and publisher of Congressional Quarterly. In this fascinating book he explores various influential ideas about foreign policy common among the US ruling class.
He proposes that the key divide is between the idea of progress, which he claims leads to interventions abroad, and the cyclical view of history, which he claims leads to non-intervention. He presents the five resulting foreign policy options: expansionism, liberal and conservative interventionisms, and liberal and conservative isolationisms.
He notes that Francis Fukuyama upholds the idea of progress, telling us that globalisation will end all history, including wars, as we all become American. Merry notes that Norman Angell presented the same idea back in 1910, predicting that the growing economic interdependence between countries made wars impossible. Now New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, a bugler for globalisation, says that Angell was `actually right', little details like the world wars having clearly escaped his magisterial attention. It certainly seems that the globalisation can only be achieved by wars to impose it on reluctant nations.
Merry himself espouses Samuel Huntington's cyclical view of history as the eternal, inevitable clash of civilisations. But what is peaceful about this vision? Civilisations clash only when states invade other people's countries.
Yet Merry opposes Bush's foreign policy and his bellicosity against Iran, Russia and China. Merry also opposes Bush's policy of getting Turkey into the EU, noting that Bush fatuously said, "As a European power, Turkey belongs in Europe."
Of the current US war against Islam, Merry writes, "In such a war, unprecedented in modern history, probably the most destabilizing approach would be a combination of Theodore Roosevelt's Will to Power imperialism and Woodrow Wilson's missionary idealism. And yet that is precisely the dual policy that emerged from the George W. Bush administration after 9/11." He writes of Bush's "post-9/11 foreign policy destined from the beginning to lead his country toward calamity." Is the USA a crusader state fighting endless wars, with British forces as its Gurkhas?
Good Information May 5, 2008
Just stick with the book through the boring first half and a gem of understanding about our current situation in the Middle East will be presented that puts the war in an historical context. It also helped me understand more deeply than the tv sound bites some of the forces that have shaped and continue to change this important area of the world.
 Progress/Decline and Globalization February 23, 2006
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
The author's thesis stands in and of itself but comes wrapped up in a series of ruminations on Progress, Decline, Toynbee, Spengler and Fukuyama, plus Huntington. This wrapper makes the book very interesting, and yet it is questionable whether the interpretation given is really correct. The question of the idea of progress, after an all too partial history of the idea's own progressions, is then mapped onto the Bush foreign policy. The change of scale is misleading and counterproductive. Similar problems arise with the cyclical views of Toynbee and Spengler. Then the Hegelian End of History thesis is grafted onto the discussion in a way that doesn't quite fit. In a way it is good to raise these issues and attempt the 'philosophy of history' genre as a backdrop to cultural discussion, but the key to doing that has been lost, if it was ever found, and the result is a kind of ad hoc historicism. The idea of progress gets a bum rap these days, and that's not surprising if it is claimed that Bush is its representative. But the idea, on the right scale, is an essential component to historical understanding. The problem is that historical dynamics and the machinations of ideologicalpolicy mongers become scrambled.
I think, beyond the analysis, the cautionary critique of the false universalism of imperial presidents remains of value in the book, but the overall result goes begging for some relief from the cliches of rival pastiche versions of the philosophy of history. Interesting book in any case.
The right way to reconcile the contradictions of cyclical theories, the idea of progress and the confusion over Hegel's 'end of history' can be found in the reviewer's _World History and The Eonic Effect_. The works of Spengler/Toynbee and naive versions of the Progress idea need to be scrapped/upgraded to something more usable.
Good History, but a Sometimes Difficult Read December 26, 2005
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Merry's primary point is that President Bush's emphasis on "Missionary Democracy" is both naive (a recent Russian poll found 53% opposed Democracy, with only 22% supporting) and likely also counterproductive.
Most of the book covers various theories of history in an effort to build a foundation for analysis of Iraq. However, the book could have instead simply focused on an overall history of Iraq - a "nation" made up of people more loyal to their historic tribes than any overall nationalistic spirit. Thus, Sunni's are likely to relinquish centuries-long control, and the Shia's will not give up their dream of a government dominated by higher clergy. Merry believes that the Bush team failed to think about the likely outcome of deposing Hussein - fragmentation, and should have first listened to experts before proceeding. The result was that the U.S. was surprised to not be greeted as liberators, but instead as occupiers.
Finally, Merry concludes that the U.S. in a cultural "war with Islam." Few others refer to it as such; however, our non-stop insensitive actions (eg. establishing a large, permanent base in Saudi Arabia, support/bias for Israel, prisoner abuses, invading Iraq) that antagonize countless passionate Islamic followers seem to steadily make the situation worse.
Excellent Concise Serb History Lesson November 10, 2005
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
Besides challenging the reader to think about our foreign policy towards peoples not of our culture, Robert Merry covers a history of the tragedies of the Serbian people. This history I was totally ignorant of and I could not help wondering if our officials in Washington considered the history of the Balkans when we became involved in the Bosnian war. The author is highly readable. His book is a must read for students of the middle eastern culture.
|
|
|
The Lawsuit and Self Help Legal Law Book Store From LawyerBuzz.comInternational Orders & Shipping
We can ship to virtually any address in the world. Note that there are restrictions on some products, and some products cannot be shipped to international destinations.
Shipping Restrictions
Warranty issues and manufacturer restrictions prevent us from shipping certain products to all geographical locations. You'll be notified while placing your order if we're unable to ship specific items to the address you've selected.
International Addresses
The following items can be shipped to destinations outside the U.S.:
* books*
* DVDs
* music
* VHS videos
Additionally, some software, tools, and kitchen items can be shipped to the following countries:
* Australia
* Austria
* Denmark
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Japan
* Ireland
* Italy
* Netherlands
* New Zealand
* Sweden
* United Kingdom
These items can be shipped only via Priority International Shipping and are subject to an import fees deposit.
*Note: Books that require special handling because they are extremely heavy (for example, multi-volume sets) cannot be shipped outside the U.S. If this is the case, it will be noted on the product detail page.
When you place an order, we will estimate shipping and delivery dates for you based on the availability of your items and the shipping options you choose. Shipping date estimates will appear in the order form. After placing your order, you will see both shipping and delivery date estimates in the order confirmation e-mail and in the order summary in Your Account.
Calculating Cost
Shipping costs depend upon the method and option you choose.
If you choose to group items into as few shipments as possible, you'll be charged for one regular per-shipment fee, as well as a per-item fee for each item in that shipment.
If you choose to ship items as soon as they become available, we'll charge you full per-shipment fees for each shipment as well as a per-item fee for each item.
Please also note that the shipping rates for many items we sell are weight-based. The weight of any such item can be found on its detail page. To reflect the policies of the shipping companies we use, all weights will be rounded up to the next full pound. |
|
|
| | |