The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the Twenty-First Century [Hardcover]

Michael Mandelbaum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2005

How does the United States use its enormous power in the world? In The Case for Goliath, Michael Mandelbaum offers a surprising answer: The United States furnishes to other countries the services that governments provide within the countries they govern.

Mandelbaum explains how this role came about despite the fact that neither the United States nor any other country sought to establish it. He describes the contributions that American power makes to global security and prosperity, the shortcomings of American foreign policy, and how other countries have come to accept, resent, and exert influence on America's global role. And he assesses the prospects for the continuation of this role, which depends most importantly on whether the American public is willing to pay for it.

Written with Mandelbaum's characteristic blend of clarity, wit, and profound understanding of America and the world, The Case for Goliath offers a fresh and surprising approach to an issue that obsesses citizens and policymakers the world over, as well as a major statement on the foreign policy issues confronting the American people today.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As this strained defense of American power acknowledges, America's international hegemony lacks the conventional hallmarks of government, like a monopoly of force, the power to tax and legislate, and the explicit consent of the governed. But it does, the author contends, furnish "public goods" to "free riders" in an ungrateful world that likes to gripe about American domination while tacitly welcoming it. U.S. troops abroad act as a "public health service" forestalling outbreaks of war and nuclear proliferation, and as a "pest control service" against rogue regimes. America safeguards the world's oil supply, like a public energy utility. The dollar is the world's reserve currency, and Washington organizes bailouts of bankrupt countries and promotes free trade, benefiting all. Even the huge U.S. trade deficits are a kind of global Keynesian stimulus policy, with the American shopper serving as the world's "consumer of last resort." Mandelbaum—an international relations professor, Newsday columnist and author of The Ideas that Conquered the World—deploys the world-government analogy less as an analytical principle than as an apologia. His anodyne language of government service portrays America's international initiatives as principled, systematic and benevolent, rather than ad hoc, erratic and driven by domestic interests. The result is a euphemistic picture of the underlying motives and controversial effects of American foreign relations. (Jan.)
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Review

"A carefully reasoned, well-documented and extremely well-written theory on how the world really works." -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 22, 2006

"America's role... has produced arrogance, triumphalism, anger, and teeth-gnashing. Mandelbaum brings to this discussion a clear ey,... and lucid prose. " -- Fareed Zakaria

"America's role... has produced arrogance, triumphalism, anger, and teeth-gnashing. Mandelbaum brings to this discussion a clear eye... and lucid prose. " -- Fareed Zakaria

"An extraordinary contribution offering a compelling and important argument that will make any reader sit up and think." -- Lee Hamilton

"Convincingly argued... A wise reminder of the risks of getting what you wish for." -- John Lewis Gaddis

"Mandelbaum writes about complex international politics in a tone that is forceful and convincing but [also] notably relaxed and approachable." -- (The Washington Times, March 25, 2006)

"Portrays America's international initiatives as principled, systematic and benevolent, rather than ad hoc, erratic and driven by domestic interests." -- Publishers Weekly, 8/29/05

"Provocative and lucid: an owner's manual for empire builders, complete with warnings of what can go wrong." -- Kirkus Reviews November issue

"This provocative, thoughtful book is what one has come to expect from one of this country's leading foreign policy thinkers." -- Peter G. Peterson

AAAn extraordinary contribution offering a compelling and important argument that will make any reader sit up and think. -- Lee Hamilton

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: PublicAffairs; annotated edition edition (December 12, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1586483609
• ISBN-13: 978-1586483609
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #852,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C. and is the director of the American Foreign Policy Program there. He has also held teaching posts at Harvard and Columbia Universities, and at the United States Naval Academy.

His most recent book, written with co-author Thomas L. Friedman, is THAT USED TO BE US: HOW AMERICA FELL BEHIND IN THE WORLD IT INVENTED AND HOW WE CAN COME BACK. Its publication date is September 5, 2011.

He serves on the board of advisors of The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington-based organization sponsoring research and public discussion on American policy toward the Middle East.

A graduate of Yale College, Professor Mandelbaum earned his Master's degree at King's College, Cambridge University and his doctorate at Harvard University.

Professor Mandelbaum is the author or co-author of numerous articles and of 13 books: That Used To Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back (2011) with co-author Thomas L. Friedman; The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era (2010); Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Most Popular Form of Government (2007); The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As The World's Government in the Twenty-first Century (2006); The Meaning of Sports: Why Americans Watch Baseball, Football and Basketball and What They See When They Do (2004); The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy and Free Markets in the Twenty-First Century (2002); The Dawn of Peace in Europe (1996); The Fate of Nations: The Search for National Security in the 19th and 20th Centuries (1988); The Global Rivals, (co-author, 1988); Reagan and Gorbachev (co-author, 1987); The Nuclear Future (1983); The Nuclear Revolution: International Politics Before and After Hiroshima (1981); and The Nuclear Question: The United States and Nuclear Weapons, 1946-1976 (1979). He is also the editor of twelve books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Underrated Assets Badly in Need of Recognition and Reappraisal, December 31, 2005

By 

Serge J. Van Steenkiste (Atlanta, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the Twenty-First Century (Hardcover)

Michael Mandelbaum demonstrates convincingly that the world needs governance and the U.S. is the only country which has been able and willing to assume this role. Unlike the great powers and even the superpowers of the past, the 21st century U.S. has no international peer for this purpose following the disintegration of the former Soviet Union (pp. xxi, 4, 17, 196-218, 225).

Mandelbaum shows clearly that many people erroneously perceive the U.S. as an empire. Subordination, coercion, and ethnic, national, religious, or racial difference - or some combination of these differences - between the ruled and rulers are the hallmarks of an empire (pp. 1-6). Growing resistance of the subjects of imperial rule resulting from nationalism made it prohibitive and ultimately doomed its existence (pp. 10, 27-28, 77-78).

The U.S. provides services, which are public goods, to the society of sovereign states while furthering its interests around the globe (pp. 7-9). These services found their origin in the emergency measures that the U.S. took in the aftermath of WWII to strengthen Western Europe and key allies in East Asia economically, military, and politically, and to deter and contain the former Soviet Union (p. 18). The U.S. was not keen on repeating mistakes such as disastrous economic protectionism and appeasement of belligerent dictators in the 1930s (pp. 17-18, 31-32, 69, 129-34, 187-88, 224).

The U.S. provides the following global services:

1) Reassurance/Deterrence: The American military presence in Europe reassures Europeans that they do not have to spend more on defense than they do for their protection against the possibility of an aggressive neighbor (pp. 30-41). Reassurance took over from deterrence at the end of the Cold War following the disintegration of the communist block in Central and Eastern Europe (p. 35). In contrast, defense dominance and weapon system transparency have not the same supremacy in East Asia (pp. 37-39). Most ominously, the spread of weapons of mass destruction, especially in the hands of unaccountable rogue states and terrorists, increases the costs of American world's government (pp. 41-64, 101-02, 159, 189-92, 214, 220-22).

2) Cross-border Trade: The global projection of American military forces also helps enforce the international economic order. The U.S. is the only country with a navy powerful enough to provide a secure political framework for international economic activity (pp. 88-115, 127-28, 193-94). Close to 95% of trade that crosses international borders is waterborne, as is 99.5% of the weight of all transcontinental trade as Arthur Herman reminds us in his excellent book "To Rule the Waves."

3) Money: Despite the recent arrival of the euro, the world continues to use the U.S. dollar as a vehicle for transactions and as a reserve (pp. 119-20). Although the U.S. derives economic advantages upon which it can pay its foreign bills in the currency that it itself prints, the world is still better off due to the size of the U.S. economy and the sophistication of its financial markets (pp. 117-18).

4) Consumer of Last Resort: The ongoing American spending spree helps many export-driven economies grow, especially when economic conditions are sluggish in their home markets (pp. 14, 134-36). This over-reliance, which feeds the fast-growing U.S. trade deficit, is a threat to the global economy due to a sub-optimal allocation of resources needed to cover this spending spree (pp. 136-40).

One global service that the U.S. has refused to provide is a reduction in its oil consumption for a variety of reasons (pp. 110-11, 114-15, 217).

Unlike a sovereign state towards its subjects, the U.S. cannot force other sovereign states to pay for these costly services due to no acknowledged monopoly on the legitimate use of violence (p. 8). The rest of the world is usually glad to benefit from these services without paying for them (pp. 9-10, 212-13, 216-20). At the same time, there is widespread disapproval of, and even hostility to, the American global role. This negativity stems not only from American actions, but also from what the U.S. embodies (pp. 145-48, 222). However, the relative world's consensus in favor of peace, democracy, and free markets provides some legitimacy to the American role as the world's government by optimizing the costs of playing that role (pp. 10, 24-30, 93-94, 157-69, 195).

The global services mentioned above are not advertised enough with the consequence that they are usually underappreciated and taken for granted due to a lack of visibility (pp. xix, 37, 65, 93, 219-20). The biggest threat to these public goods in the 21st century will be the ageing U.S. population rather than either the discontent this leadership generates or terrorism (pp. xviii, xx, 10, 24, 28, 72, 182-86).

Furthermore, declining domestic support for state-building resulting from either preventive war or humanitarian intervention is threatening this role due to a sub-optimal performance of the U.S. over time (pp. xx-xxi, 64-87, 161-62). No country or organization possesses a silver bullet in the area of state-building (pp. 102-03). State-building is usually a generational enterprise which rests on the slow-evolving underlying local culture most often allergic to foreign rule (pp. 79-80). This observation results from the inverse relationship that exists between the ease with which a country (e.g., Saddam Hussein's Iraq) can be defeated militarily and the ease with which a new and better government (e.g., Iraq's new federal structure) can be established after its defeat (pp. 81-82).

The world's government that the U.S. embodies will generally not be acknowledged publicly as the worst form of government except for all the others as long as its key advantages are not advertised properly (p. xviii). Global services such as defense savings thanks to the American military presence and jobs created thanks to net exports to the U.S. should be translated by country and on a global basis into easy-to-understand talking points to further foster American interests abroad. Similarly, the American wider public should be sold with more conviction on this subject because it lacks the foreign policy elite's commitment to this global role (pp. 169-86, 223-26).

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars mandelbaum delivers again--don't miss this one, December 20, 2005

By 

Foreign Policy Buff (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the Twenty-First Century (Hardcover)

You'd have to look hard to find a more incisive and eloquent expert on American foreign policy than Michael Mandelbaum. The Case for Goliath is perhaps his finest book. In it, Mandelbaum takes issue with the America-bashing that has become a staple of news commentary and scholarly analyses, showing that the United States plays a beneficial and irreplaceable role in the world--one that it has never sought but is destined to assume. Yet Mandelbaum is no Pollyana: he is clear-eyed and explicit about the burdens and challenges that come with this responsibility. If you're going to buy one book on international politics in 2006, this should be the one.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Eloquent, Readable Understanding of America in the 21st Century, January 7, 2006

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Avid Reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the Twenty-First Century (Hardcover)

No one writing today has the ability to write as clearly, concisely and readably about where the United States is heading in the 21st century. He looks at the big picture and, with lots of specific examples, explains everything from the coming crisis of Medicare to how America is perceived---and misperceived---all over the world. No one can read everything on these complex, important subjects, so do yourseslf the favor of reading this one brilliant, readable book. You can have no better guide than this great writer and thinker.