Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- THE AMERICAN ERA
- Introduction
- 1 Caveat Empire: How to Think about American Power
- 2 New (and Old) Grand Strategy
- 3 Europe: Symbolic Reactions and Common Threats
- 4 Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis
- 5 Iraq and the Middle East: Dilemmas of U.S. Power
- 6 Asia's American Pacifier
- 7 Why They Hate Us and Why They Love Us
- Notes
- Index
1 - Caveat Empire: How to Think about American Power
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- THE AMERICAN ERA
- Introduction
- 1 Caveat Empire: How to Think about American Power
- 2 New (and Old) Grand Strategy
- 3 Europe: Symbolic Reactions and Common Threats
- 4 Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis
- 5 Iraq and the Middle East: Dilemmas of U.S. Power
- 6 Asia's American Pacifier
- 7 Why They Hate Us and Why They Love Us
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Nothing has ever existed like this disparity of power; nothing…. Charlemagne's empire was merely Western European in its reach. The Roman empire stretched farther afield, but there was another great empire in Persia, and a larger one in China. There is therefore no comparison.
– Paul KennedyI cannot succeed in pursuing my domestic objectives, economic or political; I cannot succeed in pursuing my regional objectives … and I cannot succeed in pursuing my global objectives …– be it on social issues, on arms control issues, on economic issues – without engaging America.
– Nabil Fahmy, Egyptian Ambassador to the United StatesIt's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq…. I was cynical about Iraq. But when I saw the Iraqi people voting … 8 million of them, it was the start of a new Arab world….
– Lebanese Druze leader, Walid JumblattHow should we think about American power and America's place in the world? An intense debate is under way that has the potential to alter the country's overall strategy for protecting and promoting its security, values, and national interests. This dialogue about grand strategy has had a long gestation period. Starting in the early 1940s, the United States faced lethal threats to its security, first in World War II and then from the Soviet Union under Stalin and his successors.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The American EraPower and Strategy for the 21st Century, pp. 11 - 38Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005