Root illustrates that recent U.S. foreign policy is too often misguided, resulting in misdirected foreign aid and alliances that stunt political and economic development among partner regimes, leaving America on the wrong side of change.
Alliance Curse: How America Lost the Third World
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
With friends like the dictators with which it regularly sides, the United States doesn't need enemies, argues this wide-ranging critique of American foreign policy. Root (Capital & Collusion) posits that, in the search for securing access to natural resources and investment opportunities in developing countries, American leaders find it cheaper and more expedient to prop up corrupt autocrats than deal with democracies. The consequences are dire, he contends: American aid lets dictatorships consolidate power while ignoring the needs of their people; when they inevitably fall, America often gets dragged into futile military interventions that leave it disgraced and unpopular. Root elaborates these themes in case studies of U.S. relations with South Vietnam, the Philippines, Iran, Iraq and other countries; his surveys proffer intriguing insights into the failings of America's allies and the surprising successes of enemies like Communist China and Islamic Iran. Root's discussions, citing everything from game theory to the marginal utility of supporting the Vietcong, can be dry and excessively technical, which is a shame, because his prescriptions for American foreign policy—less focus on military security, more on economic development and social reform—are well-grounded and compelling. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
Root's prescriptions for American foreign policy less focus on military security, more on economic development and social reform are well-grounded and compelling. --Publishers Weekly
Alliance Curse provides a needed rethinking of the cold war legacy by which the United States supported a series of autocratic regimes in the developing world. It is only now that we can understand the full long-term costs of these alliances, and the way that they harmed U.S. interests in the post-cold war world. Hilton Root has provided a valuable service in demonstrating how American ideals and interests should have been more closely aligned. --Francis Fukuyama, author of America at the Crossroads
Hilton Root has written a brilliant and provocative book on the unintended though logical consequences of American interventions in the developing world. His penetrating analysis provides a sobering but valuable lesson on how to avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future. --Minxin Pei, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Alliance Curse provides a needed rethinking of the cold war legacy by which the United States supported a series of autocratic regimes in the developing world. It is only now that we can understand the full long-term costs of these alliances, and the way that they harmed U.S. interests in the post-cold war world. Hilton Root has provided a valuable service in demonstrating how American ideals and interests should have been more closely aligned. --Francis Fukuyama, author of America at the Crossroads
Hilton Root has written a brilliant and provocative book on the unintended though logical consequences of American interventions in the developing world. His penetrating analysis provides a sobering but valuable lesson on how to avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future. --Minxin Pei, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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illegitimate offspring, alliance curse, bureaucratic universalism, alliance rents, client regimes, overseas assistance, tribal belt, equity norm Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, South Vietnam, The Economic Failure of Client Regimes, East Asia, State Department, Soviet Union, South Asia, Chiang Kai-shek, The Legacy of the Cold War, World War, Middle East, South Korea, White House, World Bank, Latin America, Master Builder, America's Moral Dilemma, Failures of Global Economic Development, Ferdinand Marcos, Democratic Paradoxes, Communist Party, Lessons Learned, President Bush, Reconstruction Efforts, The Vision Gap Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
illegitimate offspring, alliance curse, bureaucratic universalism, alliance rents, client regimes, overseas assistance, tribal belt, equity norm Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, South Vietnam, The Economic Failure of Client Regimes, East Asia, State Department, Soviet Union, South Asia, Chiang Kai-shek, The Legacy of the Cold War, World War, Middle East, South Korea, White House, World Bank, Latin America, Master Builder, America's Moral Dilemma, Failures of Global Economic Development, Ferdinand Marcos, Democratic Paradoxes, Communist Party, Lessons Learned, President Bush, Reconstruction Efforts, The Vision Gap Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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