America the Almighty [Paperback]

Stephen L. Damours (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2004

The power of the United States is without precedent in world history. Though the U.S. is one nation among 191, our economy constitutes 25% of the world’s economy. We have more military power and spend more on our military than all other nations combined. Our military spending is eight times greater than that of the second-biggest spender, Russia. It seems only natural to expect a democracy with such overwhelming power to lead the world and be in the vanguard of global progress on numerous fronts. Yet there is a profound and growing problem with American leadership in the world. More often than not, U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War has been either backward or bullying or both, slowing global progress on multiple fronts and often instilling fear and loathing in the populations and leaders of other countries, including our allies. We think of ourselves as a leader, but often we are a "leader" with no followers and many resentful detractors. We have alienated our allies and intensified the hatred of our enemies. We have provided powerful new incentives to anti-American terrorists.

There is a huge and widening gap between our values and our international behavior. American citizens and traditions value human rights, enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, yet our leaders have refused to ratify two great human rights treaties of the past two decades, the treaties on the rights of women and of children. We stand alone among democracies in rejecting them. Our people and our traditions value impartial justice, yet American leaders have rejected a new International Criminal Court and engaged in a campaign to coerce other nations to exempt our citizens from its jurisdiction. We make war on this Court despite rock-solid protections against political abuse built into its charter by American negotiators. We are concerned about protecting the environment on which our lives and economy depend, but our leaders have rejected a major treaty on global warming and promoted policies that lead to continued pollution the earth’s atmosphere at a rate that is clearly not sustainable. We believe in peace but our leaders have rejected, withdrawn from, or violated a series of arms control treaties, balked at paying our dues to the UN for over a decade, and launched an unnecessary war against a country that was not a genuine threat to the U.S. The cost to the U.S. in lives, tax dollars, and credibility is immense. America the Almighty is about these gaps between our noble and sensible values and our self-defeating foreign policy, how they came about, and what American citizens to do to change the picture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Stephen L. Damours has written, traveled and lectured on United Nations reform and U.S. foreign policy and on management consulting techniques and practices. He holds a Masters Degree from the University of Chicago in English Language and Literature. He has conducted workshops and seminars on writing and public speaking and taught writing and literature at Cleveland State University. He serves on the Board of Directors of Citizens for Global Solutions and has served on the Board and Executive Council of the Campaign for UN Reform and other national organizations concerned with peace, justice, human rights, and sustainable prosperity. He has served in a variety of positions in the U.S. Department of State and other government agencies. He is a co-author of the book, Management Analysis in Public Organizations. He developed the Peace-War knowledge base, a computer program that asks questions and uses the answers to calculate the probability that a country will be at peace or at war in the near to mid-term future.

Product Details

• Paperback: 422 pages
• Publisher: Bookman Publishing (July 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594533490
• ISBN-13: 978-1594533495
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,910,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Indispensable Call to Arms, August 12, 2004

By 

S. Hoffman (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: America the Almighty (Paperback)

America the Almighty, by Stephen L. Damours, a devastating critique of American foreign policy, examines both healthy and dangerous trends in international relations. It shows how, all too frequently, the Bush administration has become the cause of the latter.

Damours identifies two primary currents in human society: universalism, which seeks the welfare of all humanity, and tribalism, which advances the local and parochial at the expense of the whole. Following a great build-up of international institutions (the United Nations, the Breton Woods financial bodies, et al.) after World War II, U.S. foreign policy has shifted decisively in the tribalistic direction, especially in the Bush administration. This has made us an arrogant bully in our conduct of foreign affairs, "a spoiled child with too much power."

The author shows how the U.S. has contemptuously defied or ignored international agreements - including the Kyoto environmental treaty, the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court (signed by Clinton and repudiated by Bush), and U.N. treaties on the rights of women and children. Almost half of America the Almighty deals directly or indirectly with the Iraq War and its aftermath -- Exhibit A in the case against U.S. tribalistic foreign policy. Citing voluminous documentation, Damours presents the most complete argument I've seen so far that the war was based on the falsehood of Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction, that it caused atrocities against "tens of thousands of innocent people," and that it's producing Middle Eastern hatred disastrous for America's war on terrorism.

America's tribalistic foreign policy may be calamitous in the long run for American citizens as well as the rest of the world, but it does not reflect the views of the great majority of the American people, as polls have consistently shown. Our great political challenge is to harness the widespread but not passionately held universalism of the American public toward the realization of a transformed foreign policy. American support of - rather than contemptuous opposition to - universalist trends widespread in many other countries could lead to new or strengthened institutions greatly reducing violence, poverty and pollution, such as a well-functioning International Criminal Court; UN peace enforcement units to stop civil wars and massacres at an early stage; UN police forces to maintain order in the aftermath of conflicts; a global environmental regulatory body; and an effective international labor organization.

In the long run, the world will need, and should have "a democratic system ... that requires compliance from all nations without requiring unanimous agreement among them." This system should be neither a relatively powerless confederation such as the existing United Nations, nor an all-pervasive centralized state, but "an arrangement both more democratic and more effective than the United Nations, but far less centralized and intrusive than the United States Federal Government. Democracy at all levels, central and local, is an essential ingredient in the mix." Is human nature capable of this change? Damours shows how large areas of the globe have moved from arenas of war to peaceful free-trade zones in a single human lifetime - the European Union being a prime example.

Stephen L. Damours' thoroughly researched and detailed presentation both of his condemnation of current American policies and of the kinds of solution possible gives his book impressive authority and solidity. It is moreover an interesting and involving read - my reactions ranged from horror and indignation over the catalogue of American misbehaviors in Iraq to hope and inspiration in the last chapter offering alternatives.

At the eve of an historic and critical presidential election, America the Almighty is an indispensable call-to-arms.


Scott L. Hoffman

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Bowker Review, September 9, 2005

By 

Folio (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: America the Almighty (Paperback)

Is a strong America good for the world? Is it, in fact, good for America? What happens when you coerce nations to support you? Do they fear you? Or do they hate you? Why is International Law important? Stephen L. Damours raises these highly sensitive questions in 'America The Almighty'.

By taking a critical stance regarding America's foreign policy and its attitude towards international jurisdiction the work makes one think about what would be the best manner in which to come to terms with a world post September 11. It looks at some of the most serious problems facing the country like the manner of dealing with nicotine, the oppression of women, the plight of children, and the attitude towards law. Thoroughly critical of the way in which women are oppressed, children are affected and the way in which nicotine and drugs are a part of life, this book makes one shudder at the number of horrors being perpetuated on unsuspecting citizens.

There is no doubt as to what the author feels the best manner to face these problems is; but the best part of the book is that one is not coerced into agreeing with whatever the author says. Whether one agrees with what the author says or feels that the country is justified, one cannot ignore the seriousness of the issues discussed and the strength of the arguments put forward. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in the future of America.