Follies of Power: America's Unipolar Fantasy
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 4/20/2009
EAN 9780521767675, ISBN10: 0521767679
Hardcover, 188 pages, 23.4 x 16.3 x 2.3 cm
Language: English
The imagination of America's political elites is dominated by a unipolar vision, according to which the world is dominated by the United States. But the real world is increasingly plural, and others instinctively fear and resist the American vision. Chapters 2 and 3 of this book look at the disastrous consequences of the vision at work - in the Middle East and in Europe. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 assess the limits of American power. Chapter 7 discusses the problems of order and coexistence in a world that is not unipolar but increasingly plural. It speculates on the possible contributions and likely fate of both 'Old America' and 'New Europe' as models for organizing the future. America's own constitutional equilibrium, David Calleo argues, increasingly requires friendly balancing from Europe. Both sides of the West must liberate their imaginations from past triumphs to face their responsibilities to the new world and to each other.
Part I. Geopolitical Illusions and their Consequences
1. The unipolar fantasy
2. Hubris in the Middle East
3. The broken West
Part II. The Nature and Limits of American Power
4. Assessing America's soft and hard power
5. Feeding American power
the economic base
6. Power and legitimacy among Western states
Part III. World Order in the New Century
7. American and European models.
' ... a compelling critique ... ' The International Spectator