The World America Made [Hardcover]

Robert Kagan (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 7, 2012

What would the world look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times best-selling author and one of the country’s most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane.
 
Although Kagan asserts that much of the current pessimism is misplaced, he warns that if America were indeed to commit “preemptive superpower suicide,” the world would see the return of war among rising nations as they jostle for power; the retreat of democracy around the world as Vladimir Putin’s Russia and authoritarian China acquire more clout; and the weakening of the global free-market economy, which the United States created and has supported for more than sixty years. We’ve seen this before—in the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I.
 
Potent, incisive, and engaging, The World America Made is a reminder that the American world order is worth preserving, and America dare not decline.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The book makes the case that the nation’s decline is a myth, a reaction to the financial crisis of 2008 rather than to any genuine geopolitical shifts." —The New York Times
 
"These ideas struck a chord with a President accused of leading a great American retreat."
—Michael Crowley, Time
 
"Kagan paints with a broad brush, sprinkling a memorable metaphor here, a striking simile there . . . He provides a compelling demonstration that whether it's protecting the sea lanes vital for free trade or nudging societies toward democracy, the world stands a better chance with America in prime position than with China or Russia in the lead." —The New York Times Book Review   

"[Marco] Rubio's foreign-policy views have evidently been recently shaped by a reading of Robert Kagan's The World America Made, a much-discussed refutation of the now-popular notion of American decline. As a Romney advisor who has penned bedside reading for President Barack Obama, Kagan could plausibly claim to be the most prominently cited writer in Washington right now." —Foreign Policy Magazine

"Intelligent, cogent, and timely." —Publishers Weekly

"At once a robust defence of the role America plays in world affairs and a determined rejection of the 'myth' that America is in decline." —Financial Times

"Serious, scholarly . . . [These are] ideas expressed clearly and consicely." —David Ignatius, Washington Post Writers Group  

"An extended and convincing argument against the thesis that there is anything inevitable about American decline." — Max Boot, Commentary 
 
"The foreign policy blueprint for the next Republican president." —Senator Marco Rubio
 
"Kagan grabs the reader’s attention from page one . . . He makes a powerful point: If America were to make a serious effort to disengage in world affairs, the world quickly would devolve into a much more scary and dangerous place . . . If you have time to read just one book, I suggest Kagan’s."  —Major General Perry Smith

"Magisterial . . . It's a small book, it's a great book."  —Bill Bennett
 
"Very important . . . A wonderful book."  —Hugh Hewitt
 
"A must-read."  —Lou Dobbs
 

About the Author

Robert Kagan is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for The Washington Post. He is also the author of The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Dangerous Nation, Of Paradise and Power, and A Twilight Struggle. Kagan served in the U.S. State Department from 1984 to 1988. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 149 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307961311
• ISBN-13: 978-0307961310
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #168,367 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 85 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A strongly argued essay against the conventional wisdom regarding 'Declining America' February 7, 2012

By Shalom Freedman HALL OF FAMETOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Kagan's major argument is that all the talk of American decline shows little knowledge and perspective in regard to the various historical situations and realities the United States has been through. `Decline' as he sees it is not an inevitability but a choice and one great danger is that accepting the conventional wisdom regarding America's alleged decline will help promote it.
To argue against inevitable U.S. decline Kagan assesses the present situation of the United States and defines it in a different way from most other commentators. He maintains that the United States still has one- quarter of the world`s GDP- the same figure that it has had over the past three decades. The single great unusual point was after World War Two where it had fifty percent of the world product. Kagan notes that the U.S decline is often compared with the British Empire decline though late nineteeth and early twentieth century Britain had a rapid fall in share of global GDP of a kind the U.S. has never known.
On the military front Kagan argues that the U.S. remains far superior to any potential rival. He notes that it ,contrary to common opinion, has a far smaller percentage of its population serving overseas than it did in the sixties and seventies. He points out that the U.S. has a far superior array of military technologies than any potential rival. This military superiority is vital to the U.S. being the key provider in a more secure and prosperous world. i.e. Kagan's argument is not only that U.S. power is not in decline, it is that U.S. power is beneficial to the peoples of the world, and in fact makes the world- system operate in a far better way than it would were any other power to be its leader. In this Kagan clearly suggests that those who preach U.S.... decline are in effect really arguing that there will too be global decline.
Kagan assesses also the relative growth of other potentially rival powers China, India, Russia. He clearly sees China as the major potential rival but also points out its strategic weaknesses in part because it is surrounded by major U.S. allies, who to this point maintain their U.S. alliances.
Kagan also buttresses his argument by pointing to various other periods of great crisis in U.S. history, periods which were also seen in their own time as pointing to inevitable decline. The most recent of these was in the nineteen seventies with the Vietnam War, the high unemployment, the oil crisis. Kagan shows how the United States has proven adaptable in confronting crises, in using its legacy of innovation and freedom to find new ways to contend with new problems. The implication is that just as the United States has contended with previous crises it will find a way to contend with the financial crisis , and social crises it is now facing.
`Decline' as Kagan points out is often measured by pointing to an idealized, romanticized Past which never existed. One of the most interesting parts of the work is his showing how the United States never had an easy time in having its way in the international arena. There have always been failures and difficulties. Kagan says in regard to foreign policy one is like a hitter in baseball, one is successful when one fails seventy percent of the time.
This book does not deny that the United States presently has great problems. It does not even deny the possibility that it may fail in contending with them. But it does make a very strong case that not only is decline not inevitable but if past historical example is precedent the United States will find a way out of the present crisis to new strength, and continue to play its predominant role in the world. Read more ›

34 of 47 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars The big picture February 13, 2012

By William Whipple III VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Some people think the United States spends far too much on its armed forces out of a misguided desire to be the world's policeman. Spend half as much, eliminate most of the foreign bases, bring our troops home. And guess what - other nations will pick up the slack and life will go on. Meanwhile, we can do some "nation building" in this country.

This book by a senior analyst at the Brookings Institution paints a different picture. In Robert Kagan's view, US preeminence since the breakup of the USSR has been a good thing for both our country and the world. Among the benefits: continued freedom from major wars, a trend towards democratic governments, and relatively free trade that contributes to global prosperity.

The idea that the US has already begun a decline is mistaken, says the author, and stem from two misperceptions. Aside from the situation immediately after World War II, the US never enjoyed as much power as some people now "remember." Also, recent disappointment with results of the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan and economic reverses have skewed perceptions of the longer-term situation. This country has encountered many setbacks over the years, as in the 1970s with the end of the War in Vietnam and the oil crisis, and come back stronger than ever.

Let there be no mistake, moreover, that the US could reduce its military forces and foster a multi-polar world without adverse consequences. History shows that any world order depends on the existence and if necessary use of military power; the leading nations will not voluntarily subordinate their ambitions to someone else's notion of the greater good. Likely results of US decline would be less democracy in the world, more barriers to trade, and far more risk of major wars.... Ergo, the costs involved could far outweigh the potential benefits of slicing defense spending by, say, $100 billion a year.

The World America Made is lucid, easy to read, and studded with telling historical analogies. As to whether mankind has evolved to the point that major wars are unthinkable, for example, consider The Great Illusion by Norman Angell. Published in 1910, this book argued that "wars between great powers would be the height of irrationality" and "neither the people nor the bankers would allow it." World War I broke out only four years later.

I think Kagan's points are well taken. His book deserves to be thoughtfully considered before deciding on proposed cuts in defense spending that would substantially reduce our present military capabilities over time. Maybe we should actually be spending more on defense!

But for those looking for an analysis of how the US military posture needs to evolve in light of current and anticipated conditions around the globe, The World America Made will be a disappointment. Kagan makes no effort to address such details. Had he done so, this book might deserve a higher rating. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Indispensable Superpower July 4, 2012

By Eric Mayforth

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Many around the world detest American power and even many in this country are at least ambivalent about our global role. In "The World America Made," author Robert Kagan begins by inviting readers to wonder in the fashion of the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" what the world might be like without the United States.

Kagan notes that there was nothing inevitable about our current world order that, under American leadership, since 1950 has seen a healthy rate of economic growth, no wars between major powers, the eradication of poverty in many parts of the globe, and a great increase in the number of countries that are democracies. World peace and the spread of democracy are not inevitable, Kagan asserts, and notes that in the 1920s and 1930s when there was no leading powerful democracy in the world there was what he calls a "reverse wave" in which pernicious ideologies were on the rise.

Some today argue that the world would function more smoothly if there was a multipolar arrangement and America was no longer the world's clear leader, but Kagan disputes this, offering a key example of a multipolar system in the past that led to disaster and tragedy. The author also offers cold, hard statistics to refute the abject nonsense that the size of our defense budget is the main driver of our deficits. He wisely notes that, given the stability and prosperity we (and the world) get from the low percentage of GDP we spend on defense, "it may be a lot cheaper to preserve the current level of American involvement in the world than to reduce it."

"The World America Made" is a short book, but it is so well-argued and meaty that there were many, many passages that I underlined, double-underlined, and bracketed.... Kagan's book is very timely and is a book that in this election year should be read by anyone skeptical or ambivalent about the global role of the United States. Read more ›