(Note: this book review is an excerpt of an essay written by myself for the PSCI281 course at UW)
In Taming American Power, Stephen Walt has written what is effectively a guide for understanding how other states view and deal with American primacy and an attempt to prescribe what he sees as the ideal foreign policy that maximizes harmony and minimizes threats to American interests. He refers to this as an “offshore balancing” (12) strategy. He begins by describing how America became so powerful and why other states may view the situation as unfavorable. He then outlines the many strategies that states use to deal with American primacy. Concluding with essentially a to-do-list, he describes how he thinks the U.S. should conduct itself to preserve its national interest.
One of the main purposes of his book is to inform Americans, particularly of outside views of the United States and of the consequences of previous foreign policy decisions that presumably do not get much attention in the mainstream media. He explains why American power is a problem to an audience that may not realize it or have thought about much, and why it is important to study how other countries view the United States. He writes, “The more we know about the ways that others view U.S. power, and the more we understand about the strategies they are using to deal with it, the better equipped we will be to fashion a foreign policy that will maximize global support and minimize opposition” (18). This understanding of strategies is what Walt devotes two chapters to.
He makes a very convincing, albeit understandably pro-American argument for the future of U.S. foreign policy. However, it’s unlikely he has convinced any neo-conservatives to change their mind. His moderate views are hard to find fault with since they are neither strongly conservative nor liberal, but some of his biases do show in his writing. For example, he is a sharp critic of the war in Iraq, which he references throughout the book, as well as the U.S. position on Israel. Regardless, his examples of the different strategies in use were plentiful and informative, and it was very easy to agree with his conclusions because they were straightforward, logical, and seemed like common sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment