Two of the title key words are very important to this review: ‘American Primacy’.
When an author writes a book, especially one that is political and deals with foreign affairs, this book captures events as a snapshot in time. As authors write later books, sometimes their views change.
Chessboard has been on university Poli Sci and Foreign Affairs/ Diplomatic Studies book lists for academic use since it was published, meaning that people who needed to know about and shape our foreign policy for the last 20 years have been familiar with it and have used it.
Dr. Brzezinski ‘s very interesting book is loaded with maps and other graphics to illustrate the changes that would be made in the future (from the time that he wrote it) to many countries world-wide, some of which would benefit from these changes, while others would not.
One of the most prescient, cogent, and almost incredible aspects about this book is that most of what it says would occur in world events at the time that it was written has, in fact, eventually happened!
In many ways, this book seems to have been ‘the script’ for many US foreign policy advisers to have been following, and it is understandable that it was followed, given that Brzezinski was a member of the CFR, a founding member of the Trilateral Commission, a Bilderberger, and an adviser to Presidents and other people that shape global policy. He did this both professionally and as a university professor.
The average person has no idea that a book like this exists. Because of this, I have bought multiple copies and given them out to others to help them understand why our current events are happening - by means of both major political parties, in a seemingly long-term weaving back and forth, throughout different political administrations.
As such, this would be one of the main Poli Sci/ diplomatic studies books to buy, read, re-read, and discuss with friends who also have inquiring minds.
I recommend that readers also buy Brzezinski’s last book: Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power (2012), because it is the bookend to Chessboard. In fact, I often buy both and give them to friends to read, so that we can use our higher-order thinking and communication skills to have a discussion about what the author felt/ knew about the imperatives of the ‘American Primacy’ at the time that he wrote Chessboard in 1997. This should then allow us to compare his changed vision to what he says in Strategic Vision, only 15 years later.
This book (along with Strategic Vision) should be required reading to increase the Politics/ Foreign Affairs knowledge base for every inquiring mind, especially regarding the concept of ‘global order’ and how the US currently fits inside of this.
(Please see my other Brzezinski Amazon ‘bookend’review on Strategic Vision.)
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Florian ETIENNE
Un grand classique de la géopolitique
Reviewed in France on July 23, 2013
