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Andrew J. Bacevich

A. J. Bacevich

American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy Paperback – March 15, 2002

by Andrew J. Bacevich (Author)

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In a challenging, provocative book, Andrew Bacevich reconsiders the assumptions and purposes governing the exercise of American global power. Examining the presidencies of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton--as well as George W. Bush's first year in office--he demolishes the view that the United States has failed to devise a replacement for containment as a basis for foreign policy. He finds instead that successive post-Cold War administrations have adhered to a well-defined "strategy of openness." Motivated by the imperative of economic expansionism, that strategy aims to foster an open and integrated international order, thereby perpetuating the undisputed primacy of the world's sole remaining superpower. Moreover, openness is not a new strategy, but has been an abiding preoccupation of policymakers as far back as Woodrow Wilson.

Although based on expectations that eliminating barriers to the movement of trade, capital, and ideas nurtures not only affluence but also democracy, the aggressive pursuit of openness has met considerable resistance. To overcome that resistance, U.S. policymakers have with increasing frequency resorted to force, and military power has emerged as never before as the preferred instrument of American statecraft, resulting in the progressive militarization of U.S. foreign policy.

Neither indictment nor celebration, American Empire sees the drive for openness for what it is--a breathtakingly ambitious project aimed at erecting a global imperium. Large questions remain about that project's feasibility and about the human, financial, and moral costs that it will entail. By penetrating the illusions obscuring the reality of U.S. policy, this book marks an essential first step toward finding the answers.

Print length

312 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard University Press
Publication date

March 15, 2002
Dimensions

6.12 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches
ISBN-10

0674013751
ISBN-13

978-0674013759
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“I have long suspected our nation's triumphs and trials owed much to the American genius for solipsism and self-deception. Bacevich has convinced me of it by holding up a mirror to self-styled idealists and realists alike. Read all the books you want about the post-Cold War, post-9/11 world, just be sure American Empire is one of them.”―Walter A. McDougall, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, University of Pennsylvania

“This deeply informed, impressive polemical book is precisely what Americans, in and outside of the academy, needed before 9/11 and need now even more. Crisp, lively, biting prose will help them enjoy it. Among its many themes are hubris, hegemony, and the fatuousness of claims by the American military that they can now achieve 'transparency' in war-making.”―Michael S. Sherry, Northwestern University

“The United States could not possibly have an empire, Americans think. But we do. And with verve and telling insight Andrew Bacevich shows how it works and what it means.”―Ronald Steel, author of Temptations of a Superpower: America's Foreign Policy after the Cold War

“[A] straightforward "critical interpretation of American statecraft in the 1990s"...he is straightforward, too, in establishing where he stands on the political spectrum about US foreign policy...Bacevich insists that there are no differences in the key assumptions governing the foreign policy of the administrations of Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II--and this will certainly be the subject of passionate debate...Bacevich's argument persuades...by means of engaging prose as well as the compelling and relentless accumulation of detail...Bring[s] badly needed [perspective] to troubled times.”―James A. Miller, Boston Globe

“For everyone there's Andrew Bacevich's American Empire, an intelligent, elegantly written, highly convincing polemic that demonstrates how the motor of US foreign policy since independence has been the need to guarantee economic growth.”―Dominick Donald, The Guardian

“Andrew Bacevich's remarkably clear, cool-headed, and enlightening book is an expression of the United States' unadmitted imperial primacy. It's as bracing as a plunge into a clear mountain lake after exposure to the soporific internationalist conventional wisdom...Bacevich performs an invaluable service by restoring missing historical context and perspective to today's shallow, hand-wringing discussion of Sept. 11...Bacevich's brave, intelligent book restores our vocabulary to debate anew the United States' purpose in the world.”―Richard J. Whalen, Across the Board

“To say that Andrew Bacevich's American Empire is a truly realistic work of realism is therefore to declare it not only a very good book, but also a pretty rare one. The author, a distinguished former soldier, combines a tough-minded approach to the uses of military force with a grasp of American history that is both extremely knowledgeable and exceptionally clear-sighted. This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to understand the background to U.S. world hegemony at the start of the 21st century; and it is also a most valuable warning about the dangers into which the pursuit and maintenance of this hegemony may lead America.”―Anatol Levin, Washington Monthly

“American Empire is an immensely thoughtful book. Its reflections go beyond the narrow realm of U.S. security policy and demonstrate a deep understanding of American history and culture.”―David Hastings Dunn, Political Studies Review

About the Author

Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press; Edition Unstated (March 15, 2002)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674013751
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674013759
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.3 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.12 x 0.75 x 9.25 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,744,990 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,371 in Non-US Legal Systems (Books)
- #1,418 in Comparative Politics
- #1,813 in International Diplomacy (Books)

Customer Reviews:
24 ratings

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Andrew J. Bacevich

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Andrew J. Bacevich grew up in Indiana, graduated from West Point and Princeton, served in the army, became an academic, and is now a writer. He is the author, co-author, or editor of a dozen books, among them American Empire, The New American Militarism, The Limits of Power, Washington Rules, and Breach of Trust. His next book America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History is scheduled for publication in 2016.

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not me

It's the Economy, Stupid

Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2011

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The U.S. may be geographically isolated in North America but it conducts its foreign policy on a global scale. Just consider: Washington pushes aggressively for an open world economy where trade is free and U.S. capital can flow without impediments. Its gigantic military establishment operates from bases in Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Far East. It acts to isolate, disarm, or rub out "rogue regimes" like those in Serbia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Burma, Libya, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Cuba, however unimportant or faraway they may be. Incredibly, America sees threats everywhere, even though no country or conceivable coalition of countries could threaten it. Maintaining a global footprint is a constant of U.S. policy, no matter which party is in power.

"American Empire" weaves these odd facts into a comprehensive analysis of post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy. The basic idea is that Washington has sought to nurture and organize a world of well-governed capitalist states that will live in peace, trade freely, eschew terror, and accept U.S. leadership. Dissenting states sooner or later feel U.S. pressure to "transform," as the demise of Soviet power has given America a blank check to coerce small countries. And while America aims to be the dominant global power and the enforcer of systemic norms, ordinary Americans tell themselves that the system isn't "imperialist" because it is benevolent and in the interest of the common good.

"American Empire" is provocative, historically informed, and well written. The author, Andrew Bacevich, is a retired Army colonel who understands the politics of foreign policy very well. He does a great job of cutting through political cant and identifying the underlying bipartisan continuities in American strategy that tend to be obscured by Democratic and Republican campaign rhetoric. He explains why the end of the Cold War didn't result in the liquidation of the U.S. military machine or its network of overseas bases, supposedly erected to defend the West against communism. And while he may overstate the economic motivation behind U.S. foreign policy -- did it really shape our actions in Somalia, Kosovo, or Afghanistan? -- the exaggeration is almost forgivable, because our media and political leadership act as if corporate interests and sheer greed play no role in U.S. foreign policy at all.

I knocked off one star mainly because of a big omission at the core of the book: for someone who believes that economics drives strategy, Bacevich has almost NO discussion of investment flows, the WTO, free trade agreements, or the use of the IMF and the World Bank to pry open foreign economies. It's a weird, glaring omission. I can only conclude that Bracevich, a diplomatic historian, didn't feel competent to handle the material.

Final Comment: "American Empire" was published in 2002 and mostly written before 9/11. It didn't anticipate the seachange that occurred under Bush and Cheney. In particular, it wrongly predicted that the U.S. would continue the Clinton-era policy of containing Iraq via sanctions and occasional air strikes. While it's true that the invasion of Iraq was consistent with the policy of imposing democratic capitalism on "rogue" states, Bacevich seemed to assume that a "real" war wasn't in the cards, since the sacrifice-averse American public would only support easy wars (a la Kosovo) that relied on airpower and proxy armies, not on U.S. grunts. As other Amazon reviewers note, Iraq and Afghanistan didn't fit this model perfectly -- but then Libya fits it to a tee! No book on U.S. foreign policy is perfect, but take it from me, a career foreign affairs bureaucrat: "American Empire" is better than most.

2 people found this helpful

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N. Tsafos

Open doors and the militarization of American foreign policy

Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2004

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To many cynics, a book like the "American Empire" might seem like an exercise in futility. Who could have trouble believing, after all, that America's primary strategic objective is to create a global marketplace without barriers to the movement of goods, capital, ideas and people? But what starts as an exposition of this argument soon branches into various themes of diverse interest yet equal importance.
Andrew Bacevich, a professor at Boston University, takes on conventional wisdom. For those who are baffled by the complexity of the post Cold War world and are dismayed by America's lack of a coherent strategy, Mr. Bacevich is reassuring: America's objective, now and in the past, has been to promote global openness; "this books finds continuity where others see discontinuity," he writes, parting ways with those who believe that globalization fundamentally reshaped American foreign policy priorities.
While this theme is ever-present, Mr. Bacevich covers a lot more ground. Perhaps his most telling contribution is the resurrection of Charles Beard and William Appleman Williams as trenchant observers of American foreign policy. Both Beard and Williams offer their own hypotheses about why America is driven to this ever increasing need for markets abroad. And, after this voyage into intellectual history comes Mr. Bacevich's own argument about why America is compelled to this strategy of openness.
All three reach the same conclusion: America's imperial quest is meant to overcome problems at home. Although Beard and Williams are polemic in their view that America's foreign adventures prologue the inevitable reckoning with domestic troubles, Mr. Bacevich adopts a more dispassionate view and offers merely a possible explanation: With America's national cohesiveness eroding, Mr. Bacevich writes, "an ever-expanding pie satisfying ever more expansive appetites was the only `crusade' likely to command widespread and durable popular enthusiasm."
With this in place, Mr. Bacevich moves on to a different point: American military assets, he contends, are increasingly used to promote global openness. This heightened willingness to use coercion has elevated the role of the military in American politics, perhaps even more so than ever before. And, this increased militarization of American politics is playing a central, if underappreciated, role in formulating as well as executing foreign policy.
For sure, all this is food for thought. Surprisingly enough, Mr. Bacevich has refrained as much as possible from judgments; in fact, writing a book on such a topic whilst remaining neutral is a feat in itself. All the same, Mr. Bacevich's military mind is evident throughout. A book whose aim is to show that America's chief purpose is promoting globalization would have done well to pay heed to dollar diplomacy as much as it has to gunboat diplomacy. Yet this minor objection could not abate the appeal of an otherwise outstanding book.

22 people found this helpful

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Aa. in NorCal

dont use amazon

Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2008

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Amazon lost my book, I waited four weeks, they finally refunded my money, THEN I got an empty envelope in the mail a week ago that was supposed to contain my book! They also "lost" a second book in this order that I never recieved! Then wrote me to suggest that I should have gone to the bookstore to purchase the books!

Andrew Bacevich is awesome and all of his books are incredible reading!!! Too bad he is way to smart to become our commander and chief!

One person found this helpful

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Regis

Okay Book

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2013

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It was just another textbook supplement. It was required reading and that's all I really have to say about it.

Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2014

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Not an easy read, but the tough parts make sense in the end.

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Duane Smrha

This is not a novel. It is a political ...

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2014

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This is not a novel. It is a political book advocating an alternative point of view when considering U.S. foreign policy. I found it to be thought provoking.

Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2008

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I found this book to be very thoughtful, and after reading it , I just wonder how many more lies we will be given. It shows how easily the common person can be fooled.

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Top reviews from other countries

advokat

modern classic of geopolitical literature

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 21, 2015

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Is a modern classic of geopolitical literature. There are several books by Bacevich on sale. This is the main one - and the best. Later works, to a considerable extent, develop themes of this book. If you have not heard about the author, do not be surprised. He is what they call "analysts' analyst". If you find some of his ideas familiar, do not be surprised, either. His work is a must reading for American writers on international politics, and some use his ideas without attribution. Stratfor crowd often re-packages his ideas (along with those of Mearsheimer), and thrive.There is a short list of books that you must read to be able to converse about foreign politics on a minimally competent level. This book is there, along with "The tragedy of Great Power Politics" by Mearsheimer, "Diplomacy" by Kissinger, "American Diplomacy" by Kennan, works of Jervis and Bracken.
It is well written, the position is essentially traditional realist, in the vein of Kennan, while explicitly anti-neocon. As a former US military officer, Bacevich is particularly interesting when writing about correlation of military and civil decision-making in the US foreign policy.

2 people found this helpful

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