The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America--and What We Need in Return [Hardcover]

Nancy Soderberg (Author), Brian Katulis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0470105291 | ISBN-13: 978-0470105290 | Edition: 1

Praise for Nancy Soderberg's

The Superpower Myth

"A sensible, hard-headed, realistic alternative to the excesses of America's Iraq-era dealings with the world."
-James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly

"One of the greatest strengths of Soderberg's book is her insider's account of many of the seminal events of the 1990s. Soderberg [gives us] a bird's-eye view of such critical issues as intervention in the Balkans and Haiti and U.S. efforts to combat al Qaeda and hunt down Osama bin Laden."
-Charles A. Kupchan, The Washington Post Book World

"Does America Need a Foreign Policy? by Henry Kissinger, The Choice by Zbigniew Brzezinski, and The Superpower Myth by Nancy Soderberg-all of these authors have firsthand experience in government, and it shows. The Superpower Myth, which doubles as a memoir of Soderberg's years in the Clinton administration, is a history told from inside meeting rooms, full of detail about how government bureaucracies actually function-and why sometimes they don't."
-Jonathan D. Tepperman, The New York Times Book Review

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an interesting, insightful and readable book, with clear analysis and compelling arguments." (The Oxford Times, October 30th 2008)

From the Inside Flap

Following the devastating 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, the Bush administration pledged more than $500 million for earthquake relief and sent American helicopters and soldiers to help. Immediately afterward, polls showed that the number of Pakistanis with a favorable opinion of the United States had doubled to more than 46 percent. The Prosperity Agenda argues that this may be the best foreign policy moment of the entire Bush administration—at the cost of what we spend in Iraq every day—and should become a model for future action.

In this provocative, ingenious book, Soderberg and Katulis make one of the most controversial arguments that foreign policy circles have seen in years: no more putting all our eggs in the basket of promoting democracy or market reforms, or even diplomacy, sanctions, or cash handouts to faltering governments. Instead, they argue, we should go right to the citizens of troubled nations and give them what they need most. People in the Congo, Iraq, Pakistan, and North Korea all have the same concerns, and the right to vote is far from the top of the list. They need freedom from war, good food and shelter, basic health care, and the reasonable hope that tomorrow will be better. It's not only the right thing to do; it's likely to do more for American interests than the policies we've been relying on for years.

Why have seven years of President Bush's "freedom agenda" failed to achieve freedom or democracy in Iraq, Afghanistan, or anywhere else? When democracy starts to sound like a code word for advancing U.S. interests, it backfires. Latin America provides an excellent example of why freedom's march has stalled, in large part due to quality-of-life issues. A 2004 survey showed that a majority of people in Latin America would rather have a government that provided economic gains than a democracy.

The Prosperity Agenda embraces a new and compelling strategy for overcoming that problem and dealing with the world. Giving money, weapons, and loans with lots of strings attached doesn't do it. But handing out vaccines, disaster relief, and $100 laptops does. Working to improve the basic lives of people will, in the end, help defeat terrorism, increase America's leverage against its enemies, weaken dictatorships, and, most importantly, save the lives of millions.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (July 21, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470105291
• ISBN-13: 978-0470105290
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,259,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars CG, September 24, 2011

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CG - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America--and What We Need in Return (Hardcover)

Great quality, came in a reasonable time. I would definitely recommend this book for any extreme liberal readers. Might be a bit hard to swallow for some more conservative readers, however I am rating the quality of the book and the delivery, both of which were great

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars How To Be a Democratic Candidate for Office, August 15, 2008

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Joseph Geni (Evanston, Illinois United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America--and What We Need in Return (Hardcover)

"The Prosperity Agenda" is a catchy name for the book, but a more accurate name would be "The Year In 2007 New York Times Op-Ed Pieces." Basically, this is a classic center-left collection of talking points, replete with sympathetic anecdotal examples, a convenient cocktail-party smorgasbord of interesting statistics, etc. etc. Salient points include:

- Promoting prosperity abroad and building democratic institutions over the long term makes a heck of a lot more sense than overthrowing badly run regimes, occupying them, and hoping for the best.

- Yes, we need to hunt down bin Laden, but if we can find it in our hearts to give more aid to the Muslim world than Hezbollah does, that will go much further towards stopping the threat of terrorism.

- We should spend money fighting preventable diseases.

- Free trade benefits the US, but it has to be smart and we have to have programs to help lower-income workers, because they're the ones who get screwed by free trade.

- We should work to get rid of nuclear weapons, because the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is on the verge of complete collapse.

- Nativist know-nothing militant Minutemen are idiots.

"The Prosperity Agenda" is a worthy read, particularly if you feel underinformed on any of the issues the book covers. It's also a quick read. It's very broad in its scope, though it doesn't have time to be very deep. By far the most controversial idea here is that democracy without basic economic prosperity doesn't mean beans, because people without resources will care about that rather than about electing the best or wisest leader. (An aside: the very fact this idea is even controversial displays the depths to which our foreign policy thinking and our conception of democracy promotion has sunk in the Bush years.) But the scope here is too broad to go into comprehensive analysis of, say, why Latin American countries keep voting populist ideologues in. The answer is pretty obvious: the previous guys weren't giving them running water, electricity and a living wage. In our current political climate, I guess it's audacious of the authors to say so (rather than simply waving garlic at Hugo Chavez and hoping it'll drive him away).

Anyway, it's a good book and if you're a Democratic candidate running for major office, you should read it because it's a blueprint of how to make good, smart policy SOUND good. Hint hint: Barack Obama should probably peruse this before the Presidential debates, if he hasn't already. (I know John Kerry's read it, 'cos he recommended it.) Nice book. I just found I'd read much of it already.

2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Too Liberal, October 23, 2008

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Astonished (Brunswick, ME United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prosperity Agenda: What the World Wants from America--and What We Need in Return (Hardcover)

I found that Ms. Soderberg's sweeping generalizations simplified the subject matter to the lowest common denominator, which destoyed the topic completely. Ms. Soderberg views herself as an expert on political matters, however, a true expert is capable of viewing both sides of the political arena and present each with equilibrium and fairness, thereby allowing the reader to come to his own conclusions. No true author ever tries to force his view on the reader.