All but predicting the September 11 attacks, Pat Buchanan warns that America is inviting terrorist attacks and conflict by engaging in an interventionist foreign policy that is costly, dangerous, and does not serve our own interests.

Anyone who has caught Pat Buchanan's television appearances, or heard his campaign rhetoric, will be surprised at his relatively evenhanded and thoughtful tone as he writes - often quite persuasively - in favor of the restoration of the political, military, and economic independence that largely drove U.S. foreign policy in the 19th century. At the heart of A Republic, Not an Empire is a well-written history of U.S. foreign policy beginning with the end of the American Revolution, going through the First and Second World Wars, Vietnam, and the end of the cold war, up to the superpower's involvement in the Persian Gulf and the former Yugoslavia.

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Listening Length	14 hours and 29 minutes
Author	Patrick J. Buchanan
Narrator	Ron Dewey
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	June 25, 2014
Publisher	Regnery Publishing
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B00LAF3RPE
Best Sellers Rank	#101,610 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #195 in Foreign & International Law #404 in International Relations (Audible Books & Originals) #420 in Law (Audible Books & Originals)

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James B. Pate

A Republic, Not an Empire

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2019

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This book was originally released in 1999, before September 11, 2001. It was prescient about the sorts of discussions that would emerge after 9/11, as 9/11 inspired President George W. Bush’s wars in the Middle East, along with the accusation that Bush was seeking to impose a U.S. empire throughout the world. This particular version of the book is a 2002 update, so it includes an introduction that reflects on 9/11 and Buchanan’s criticism of the influence of neoconservatives on Bush’s foreign policy.

Buchanan’s story starts with America’s early days and extends to 2002. While George Washington wisely advised Americans to avoid entanglements in European alliances, Buchanan argues that the U.S. in its early days was far from isolationist. The U.S. interacted with foreign powers and even went to war with them, both when the U.S. was expanding its own territory and also to expel European powers from the Western Hemisphere. Buchanan still believes that Woodrow Wilson marked a downturn in American foreign policy, as Wilson brought America into World War I. Wilson sought to create a democratic world yet contradicted that very vision after World War I when he punished Germany. Wilson sought to create a League of Nations, yet that idea met with resistance, even from American politicians who were not isolationists, because it would require America to participate in even more European wars.

Controversial, even in 1999, was Buchanan’s treatment of World War II. For Buchanan, World War II was unnecessary, for Hitler’s primary ambition was to invade what was east of him, not the entire world. Britain, however, unwisely pledged to defend the dictatorship in Poland after Hitler took more of Czechoslovakia than he agreed to take, arousing British fear that he indeed had expansionist ambitions. President Franklin Roosevelt provoked the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor by cutting off Japanese access to vital supplies. Japan then decided to take those supplies from the Philippines and attacked the American base on Pearl Harbor so that the U.S. would not be able to stop it.

Buchanan is more interventionist with respect to the Cold War, as Buchanan endorses a more aggressive posture by the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

Buchanan is critical of the “new world order,” and a legitimate question is what he means by that. Does he mean what the Birchers mean: a one-world government? In a sense, yes, even though he may not go as far as the Birchers. He dislikes the growing tendency to undermine nations and to see people as citizens of the world. This includes participation in global organizations that undermine national sovereignty and the push during the Clinton Administration for American troops to fight under the auspices of the U.N. For Buchanan, globalism is unfounded, for people would rather fight for and support their own nation, people, and family rather than a nebulous “world body.”

Buchanan also opposes America’s pledge to defend other countries and to get involved in their conflicts because, for him, those conflicts are irrelevant to America’s well-being. Instead, Buchanan believes that other countries should be armed in their own right and that would create a deterrent against invasion and war.

This book has advantages and disadvantages. An advantage is that I understood Buchanan’s thesis on World War II better after reading this book than I did after reading Buchanan’s Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War. Both complemented each other, but A Republic, Not an Empire concisely laid out Buchanan’s thesis and connected the dots in describing people’s motivations.

The book could be plodding though, especially as Buchanan laid out historical facts, and it tended to romanticize early American expansionism.

The book also may disappoint those who like books with clear heroes and villains, especially Bircher books that like to bash Wilson and Colonel House as hyper-globalists. Buchanan himself has strong opinions, yet his portrayal of Wilson and House is more nuanced than that, and some may prefer his treatment of them.

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Douglas Doepke

Ten Years Later, Still Timely

Reviewed in the United States on January 16, 2009

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The book is now almost ten years old, so why bother. After all, a lot internationally has happened during the past decade--9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq--while the author has since contributed a second, updated tome (Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War) with a similar theme. Nonetheless, A Republic, Not an Empire remains a topical work because it roots Buchanan's foreign policy philosophy of "Enlightened Nationalism" in our national experience, a history of which most Americans are only dimly aware. His lengthy historical account remains highly educational, despite the passage of time, to interested but non-scholarly readers.

Agree or not, the Founding Fathers' concept of enlightened nationalism is a credo that only went into eclipse following Europe's collapse during WWII. At that point, a philosophy of globalism became the only realistic strategy for America in the face of a mounting Cold War. As a result of Cold War necessity, the US became actively involved in the affairs of other nations, contrary to the precepts of the older Founding Fathers America First tradition. The trouble is that the Cold War is long over, while a continuing globalism has sucked the republic into an interventionist role the nation cannot possibly fulfill. Worse, such demands are destroying the foundations of the republic as the ill-conceived Patriot Act shows. Hence, the time is ripe to take another look at that older counsel that counts domestic strength as the strongest defense in an unstable world.

Like any opinionated book, there are aspects to gainsay, but the thrust should not be overlooked. In short, the volume's overriding value is to revive an older tradition at a time when foreign policy elites are concocting ever more overseas commitments. I think Buchanan is right-- in fact, the time is ripe for a revival. The last ten years have confirmed the direction of this book. The republic simply cannot survive more debacles rooted in overseas meddling like 9-11 and Iraq. In addition, the economy has been driven into the ground big-time, thanks in large part to international policies that have shifted manufacture overseas. However, there are two aspects of foreign policy determination that I think the author needs to deal with more forthrightly.

First is the question of empire. Despite the book's title, Buchanan can't seem to bring himself to call a spade a spade. But Americans need to know that what has arisen since WWII is an American overseas empire, anchored by 700+ military bases and a series of US-controlled financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank. Whether it's also a "free world" is a separate question, but it is an empire as any number of interventions over the past 60 years demonstrate. By facing up to this, we situate a disengagement more clearly within the anti-imperial tradition Buchanan seeks to vindicate.

Second is the more serious question of how economically workable a return to America-first would be. I'm no economist, but several money-driven facts seem clear. Capital has no nationality. Investments go where they earn the biggest profit regardless of the human damage. According to orthodox theory, as I understand it, this all ultimately works out for the best because of the invisible hand of the marketplace. But that's theory. The fact is that free trade agreements like NAFTA have hollowed out the economy, such that we don't even manufacture our own diapers anymore, while our working people are being driven into low-wage penury. And if we complain, Repubocrat elites tell us globalization represents an irresistible force beyond challenge, and that the only alternative is a dreaded "isolationism"-- a charge, incidentally, the author is at pains to rebut in the book.

But these are basically the same people whose allegiance is to empire-first and the trade agreements that further those aims. Seems to me that reviving an enlightened nationalism would require re-industrializing our economy ahead of such trade agreements, and that such a step, in turn, would require reviving a system of tariffs and an active role for government in directing economic policy. Now, just how feasible and what the consequences of such an overhaul would be is, I think, a paramount question whose time has nevertheless come. Buchanan has shown himself willing to break from the Washington pack and take on fresh thinking. I hope he and others pursue it. As a result of this seminal book, the historical basis for such a re-direction is laid.

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Al Singh

New perspectives from an old school conservative

Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2013

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Whatever the merits of Buchanan's arguments may be, and I believe they are considerable, this book is a refreshing trip through American history. His arguments for non-interventionism seem particularly wise and prescient in light of the fact that this book was written before the Iraq War. And he has caused me to think of World War II in a different way and to reappraise the judgments of Roosevelt and Churchill, who are almost universally regarded by historians as heroes. I agree with him that globalism is leeching away America's economic strength and sovereignty, but I wonder if it is really possible to turn back the clock and put the genie back in the bottle. This is the third political manifesto by Buchanan I have read, and together his books have had a profound impact on my political thinking, particularly as regards foreign and economic policy. I hope other thoughtful conservatives are reading him as well.

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Austin Kent

Pat's Right As Usual

Reviewed in Canada on April 30, 2017

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Referencing American history, Pat brilliantly lays out the case for a traditional American foreign policy of non-intervention and temporary alliances only. Most importantly, he emphasizes the need of not antagonizing Russia who in fact should be our ally in any clash of civilizations with China or Islam. Painstakingly referenced, convincingly argued, engagingly written and filled with Pat's trademark wit, wisdom, and anecdotes, this book, and indeed all of his works, should be on the bookshelf (or tablet) of anyone who calls himself an American patriot or defender of Western civilization!

david walley

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2015

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excellent

コカクック

アメリカにおける反戦の本流

Reviewed in Japan on May 1, 2003

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ブッシュ政権の対外戦争に対する反対というと、日本ではチョムスキーやサイードといった人々が著名であるが、アメリカ本国において彼らと同等かそれ以上の注目を集めているのが本書の著者：ブキャナンである。
もっともブキャナンの立場はチョムスキー、サイードといった人々といった左派とは異なる。彼は国内重視論「アメリカ・ファースト」の見地からアメリカの（本書では主に20世紀の）介入主義・グローバリズムを検証・批判し、ブッシュ政権の戦争にも反対している。すなわちブキャナンは右派なわけだが、今や「右派＝ネオコン＝戦争賛成」というステレオタイプの出来上がった日本人に対し、彼の「右派＝国内重視＝不要な戦争には反対」という考えは、新たな視点を提供するものであろう。
国内の政没?、経済、道徳の建て直しを訴え『病むアメリカ、滅びゆく西洋』（成甲書房）を執筆したブキャナンであるが、そのためには世界に向いた人々の目をもう一度アメリカ国内に向けさせなければならない。そこでブキャナンは本書を通じて「今度こそアメリカ人が合衆国に帰るとき」と声高に叫ぶのである。

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