America as Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Power? (Hardcover)

~ James A Garrison PH.D. Jr. (Author) "THE UNITED STATES HAS BECOME what it was founded not to be..." (more)
Key Phrases: transitional empire, global issue networks, apogee moment, United States, Cold War, United Nations (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Garrison, president of the State of the World Forum, reviews America's rise to the de facto status of an "imperial republic" and suggests that the country can "articulate a vision of greatness" that will lead the rest of the world into liberal democracy. Garrison is undoubtedly correct that no other nation is powerful enough to lead the charge, and his historical analysis is strong despite its brevity. Yet the author's emphasis on the positive prospects for "the first planetary civilization" will strike many as overly optimistic.
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Product Description

America has become not only the strongest nation in the world but the strongest nation in the history of the world. Americans need to understand both why this has happened and what their responsibilities are as the world's dominant power. In this timely and telling book, Jim Garrison, president of the San Francisco-based State of the World Forum, argues that the preoccupation with military expansion is a fatal mistake, citing both FDR and Harry Truman as models for combining military power with institution building. Part of the book is devoted to the Roman empire as another important model, with cautionary lessons about incorporating fairness and respect for other cultures into the governing process. Rome's empire endured for 1,000 years; America's may end far sooner, says Garrison, unless it finds a way to balance might with right. This book provides a blueprint for that balance.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 1 edition (January 9, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157675281X
• ISBN-13: 978-1576752814
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #432,297 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening, brilliant, and wise, February 8, 2004

By	John E. Robbins (Soquel, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It has always struck me as a sign of wisdom to be able to find opportunities in difficult moments. Jim Garrison's extraordinary book, America As Empire, does just that, revealing the opportuinities in our current situation. With breathtaking clarity, it shows how we could use our global pre-eminence not to dominate and bully, but to establish the new mechanisms and institutions necessary for the effective management of the global system. It's a bold and refreshing vision, in which America uses its national sovereignty and power with imagination and decisiveness to establish an effective and democratic world order. What I love about this book is that it presents a realistic way for this nation to express its greatness and use its power to lead. If we fail to heed its message, I am afraid the international system will continue to degenerate into increasing chaos, leading to what policymakers call "catastrophic futures" or "extreme events." Eloquently written, with a deep sense of the historical significance of our present moment, JIm Garrison's America As Empire may be one of the most important books to appear on the world stage in decades.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're concerned about the state of the world, read this!, September 10, 2004

By	Robert Adler "science writer & author" (Santa Rosa, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jim Garrison's strikingly clear message is that the U.S. is at a historical crossroads. Like it or not, we have become an empire, the most powerful the world has ever known. How we handle that role will make an enormous difference to our own prosperity, security and future, and to the rest of the world.

Garrison argues convincingly that our current foreign policy, typified by unilateral military interventions, ad-hoc "coalitions of the willing," and devaluation of international law, international accords, and international organizations such as NATO and the UN, is dangerously misguided. He shows that even though our military power is enormously greater than any current or likely adversary, reliance on military power alone cannot solve the global problems that spawn failed states, violent extremism, and terrorism.

Instead, he advocates that the U.S. needs a "transcendental vision" of itself as the last empire, a transitional empire that steers the world toward an era of global good governance. He argues that we should have a much more balanced approach based on what he sees as all three main themes of our history--democracy, market capitalism, and our view of ourselves as destined to bring the light of freedom to the world. He feels that this vision led the U.S. to create the League of Nations after WWI, the United Nations, NATO, and other great international institutions after WWII, and should guide us now to stabilize the world not only through our military might, but also by creating and fostering new and better forms of international cooperation and governance.

I feel that Garrison has a lot to say that both liberals and conservatives need to hear. He makes it clear to the left that the world is in a state of crisis that requires forceful U.S. leadership backed up by the willingness to intervene militarily when and where needed. But he also makes it clear to the right that relying only or primarily on our military power, without building strong and wise international institutions, will lead to disaster.

I found this book extremely clear, very well written, highly informative, and thought-provoking.

I think that every concerned citizen should read it, and only hope that our leaders will read it too.

Robert Adler, author of _Medical Firsts: From Hippocrates to the Human Genome; and Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation

7 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars U S Policy is a Disaster: There's Nothing New Here Though!, February 5, 2004

By A Customer

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America's founders believed that the proper foreign policy for a freedom loving nation can be summed up as "Free Trade With All and Entangling Alliances with None". Garrison, on the other hand, is for any kind of entanglement that can harness the USA to the goals of international socialism.

I too object to a US foreign policy that places us in the role of global policeman and has us interfering with the internal affairs of others. We should be encouraging our business people, scientists and artists to go abroad to make peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with the peoples of the world, not sending our soldiers out to enforce the will of some small group of elite fat cats that have been scheming to run this country for their own benefit since before we were even a nation.

The only way we can exist peacefully with the rest of the world and enjoy freedom and prosperity at home is to strictly limit the power and scope of the State.

Unfortunately Garrison believes the opposite. In fact in a recent Public Radio interview he stated his belief that we need to raise taxes so the State can again have the resources it needs so it can return to the business of creating wealth as it did in the good old days of president Franklin D Roosevelt and the "New Deal"! Is it possible that people still believe that old propaganda!!?

Of course government wealth creating schemes are like spinning gold from straw and when they fail, as they inevitably must, the people's attention will need to be distracted, and nothing serves better for that purpose than a good war.

"War is the Health of the State", and the State is not you and me brothers and sisters!