The Reluctant Sheriff The United States after the Cold War [Hardcover]

Richard N. Haass (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Richard N. Haass is director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Previously he was director of National Security Programs and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. From 1989 to 1993 he served a special assistant to President George Bush and a senior director on the National Security Council Staff. This work was first published in 1997.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Imagine Gary Cooper or John Wayne at the head of a posse, riding after the outlawed Bosnian-Serb leader, Radovan Karadjic, and you've captured the dominant metaphor for America's position on the world stage. So says author Richard N. Haass, a former official in the Bush administration, in The Reluctant Sheriff, a response to what he sees as a resounding lack of interest in American foreign policy at the highest levels. Haass believes that the United States has the power to determine history, and he advocates taking a strong and active role in the post-Cold War era.

The Reluctant Sheriff explores two premises: the first is of a "deregulated" world, a time when the old rules no longer apply and each nation puts its own interests first--a kind of deregulation potentially hazardous to the international scene. Enter the second premise: the United States as international sheriff, charged with maintaining peace by garnering the goodwill and firepower of like-minded friendly citizens--much as cowboy heroes in old westerns rounded up a posse. Haass doesn't believe that America should be the world's policeman, but he does think it has a responsibility to lead a communal effort to stamp out aggression, instability, and violence whenever necessary.

Review

"A clear and often cogent reconstruction of...contemporary American grand strategy." Foreign Affairs -- Foreign Affairs

In this thought-provoking little book, Richard N. Haass ... deplores the fact that "there is less interest in and consensus over foreign policy than at any time in the past half-century." ... He also provides a useful critical survey of other post-cold-war commentators on American foreign policy and their concepts: Francis Fukuyama's "end of history," Robert Kaplan's vision of anarchy, Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations." -- The New York Times Book Review, Gaddis Smith

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 150 pages
• Publisher: Brookings Inst; 2nd edition edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0876092016
• ISBN-13: 978-0876092019
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,350,304 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Realist in Sheep's Clothing, May 16, 2000

By 

James Schoonmaker (Centreville, Virginia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War (Paperback)

No matter that Richard N. Haass is the Director of Foreign Policy Studies, a think tank with a moderate leftist reputation. He may cloak his words in liberal rhetoric, but the ideas he presents belong firmly to the Realist camp. For instance, he argues that the United States, while remaining a member of the UN and using it for our purposes, should not allow the UN to dominate us. Ideas originating in the Realist camp abound in this book.

The basic premise of this book, wonderfully supported, is that the United States should, as the title implies, conduct foreign policy "by posse". Whenever possible, the United States should engage our allies (or others when appropriate) in pursuing our objectives, but we should not allow the need for agreement to prevent us from pursuing those objectives important to us. A prime example would be the Persian Gulf War: President Bush devoted an extraordinary amount of time and effort into building the international coalition which defeated Iraq, but he also stated that if need be, the United States would stand alone.

Another important idea Haass writes about is that of the "deregulated" world. With the end of the Cold War, many of the restraints imposed by the superpowers have been removed as well. We can expect to see all of the smaller conflicts suppressed during the Cold War to come bubbling back to the surface. This increase in the sheer number of conflicts is going to pose problems for the United States, particularly if they are handled in a haphazard or irrational way. Here his Realist side peeks out from under the sheepskin again: he tells us that the United States must decide whether to intervene guided not by moral concerns or the dictates of the UN, but based on a rational evaluation of whether it would serve American interests.

This is an excellent book covering the general world state that American policymakers face today. I almost gave this book four stars out of spite: I didn't want it to end.