FREE Returns

No Import Fees Deposit & $9.92 Shipping to Canada Details

$9.92 delivery

Deliver to Canada

Temporarily out of stock.
Order now and we'll deliver when available. Details

$$27.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$8.73 delivery April 3 - 24. Details

Deliver to Canada

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Used Books Outlet

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Add to List

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Color:

To view this video download Flash Player

Follow the author

Jed L. Babbin

Follow

Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse Than You Think Hardcover – May 21, 2004

by Jed Babbin (Author)

4.1 36 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$27.95","priceAmount":27.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"27","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6zdGfqmxFuFjd5C%2FILwKIEryV4RCh4QSpoDoUaw4VkEeVVoflIoy4CKGDvwWiT3k%2BHPGBdLtgMJi1nEooSVq%2BkZlLvUWWsfVLgxifnhYGWUbCEU%2BXIIgVxj1F5jSbBvQ5Ef2psh6HLk%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$4.95","priceAmount":4.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"4","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"6zdGfqmxFuFjd5C%2FILwKIEryV4RCh4QSowGdUkGuDHnq5OciXqdDV7Oc6g4i9rJ%2BMdQIy7MJbUh%2FntEMT1HKLTB%2FwJ%2FN7CKfNc1R3Dpi5VNI8%2Fso42gWIx7%2BF54TaT0fAUXz%2BOJCguvjeHPec1vyrGzxRaS1CwbkqVbF0Ux%2F5ucFDgIRS9oxyw%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Babbin details how the United Nations actively pursues anti-American policies and appeases America's enemies, while being largely funded by $3 billion worth of annual American dues. After revealing the depth of rampant corruption in the UN, Babbin concludes that it is time to recognize the changes in Old Europe and redesign America's alliances that line up with America's national interests.

Print length

196 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Regnery
Publication date

May 21, 2004
Dimensions

6 x 0.9 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0895260883
ISBN-13

978-0895260888
See all details

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

If John Kerry and Hillary Clinton have their way, Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac will gain veto power over American foreign policy. Scared? You should be. It could happen. And in Inside the Asylum, former deputy undersecretary of defense Jed Babbin shows just how it could happen and why the UN deserves the nickname "The Asylum."

In Inside the Asylum, you'll discover:

* How the UN assists international terrorists. Babbin exposes the shocking links between the UN and terrorist organizations.

* The money trail from the UN to Saddam Hussein. Babbin rips the veil from the outrageous Oil-for-Food program-proving that the UN sold its moral legitimacy for oil, stuffed its own pockets at the expense of the Iraqi people, and undermined American pressure on Saddam Hussein: the UN's cash cow. The UN's Oil-for-Food program, according to Babbin, "provided Saddam Hussein with the means to bribe politicians, to deprive his people of needed food and medicine, and to literally steal billions of dollars. There is even emerging evidence that money from the program might have gone to support al-Qaeda."

The UN's raid on the American Treasury. Babbin provides a hair-raising glimpse into the UN bureaucracy, dominated by Third World staffers who consider the United States Treasury "the common heritage of mankind." Babbin starts at the top, exposing Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, as an anti-American moral relativist who misses no opportunity to arrogate power from the United States to the UN.

How the United Nations and the European Union are morally bankrupt-and open enemies of the United States. Babbin shows how France and the United Nations have cost American lives in Iraq by their perverse delaying of American action in the Iraq War. American troops are fighting and dying today because of a terrorist strategy Saddam Hussein developed while France and the United Nations delayed Operation Iraqi Freedom.

As Jed Babbin shows, the UN is more of an international criminal than a dispenser of legitimate international law. If America wants to retain its sovereignty and security, it's time to escape from the UN asylum and say goodbye to the false friends of Old Europe. "We owe no tribute to the UN and the EU," declares Babbin. "We should look after our own defense."

The United Nations building in Manhattan is an international enclave, no longer American territory. Inside the Asylum is a powerful argument that it's time to reclaim that land for America.

About the Author

Jed Babbin was a deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. He is a contributing editor of The American Spectator Magazine and a contributor to National Review Online.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Regnery; First Edition (May 21, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 196 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0895260883
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0895260888
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 14.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.9 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,868,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,946 in International Diplomacy (Books)
- #15,625 in U.S. Political Science

Customer Reviews:
4.1 36 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

Important information

To report an issue with this product or seller, click here.

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Jed L. Babbin

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

36 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

David Bethune

Beyond the Asylum

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2004

Verified Purchase

In this book, Inside the Asylum, Jed Babbin, former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense has written a concise (143 pages) but detailed and very realistic analysis of the UN and Old Europe's failings as international actors on the world stage today. This "must read" demonstrates that the UN and Old Europe are "morally bankrupt" and that neither is making the "world safe for democracy." In fact, on the contrary, this author demonstrates, unequivocally and unabashedly, that the UN and Old Europe are not only ineffective but false friends to the United States and a growing threat to international peace and security.
Grounded in solid research and sobering facts, plus his own extensive governmental experience, the first part of this very readable book deals with the glaring deficiencies associated with today's United Nations. This former Deputy Undersecretary during the administration of President George H. W. Bush is highly critical of what the UN has become --- an institution that ignores nuclear proliferation, is a mid-wife to terrorism, turns a blind eye to its own corruption and incompetence, squanders its members financial contributions, and facilitates a quagmire diplomacy.
Even if highly critical of the UN as an effective international player, Babbin is no unthinking unilateralist. He states that "America cannot and should not be isolationist . . ." but that does not mean that "we have to be multilateralist in the sense UN members want us to be." On the contrary, the author is a realistic multilateralist. And this means that the U.S. should seek a new and reformed UN and our "destination should be a new global organization of the free and democratic nations with which we share values and goals." Babbin, ever the realist in international affairs, acknowledges that this new framework will take time and effort but he is sure that this new organization of the free and democratic nations will "minimize the damage the UN can cause while we move ourselves and our allies into a new framework for international cooperation."
The second part of the book deals with the failings associated with what Babbin calls "Old Europe" --- the major nations of the European Union, France, Germany and the Benelux countries. In this second part, he builds upon his earlier thesis regarding the need for a new and reformed UN. Babbin calls for a new and reformed NATO, outside the framework of the European Union and a failing Old Europe. In fact, the "EUnuchs"(and the UN)are "united in seeing America as a threat to their own powers .... Many states within the EU follow France's lead and see their role as competing against America, rather than cooperating with us." The United States should lay the foundation for a new Anglo-European forum that will reform NATO, excluding nations that are not our partners and that do not "share a similar poltical and strategic vision and similar rates of defense expenditures with the United States." This new political/military alliance "will be better suited to mutually beneficial consultation, cooperation, and action." And it will be a more aggressive partner in the war against Islamo-Fascism.
During this presidential year, this is a book (to be read in tandem with Endgame by Generals Thomas McInerney and Paul Vallely) that calls for an American foreign and defense policy that emphasizes American sovereignty, decisive/pre-emptive self defense, reformed/realistic international cooperation and an aggressive/robust war against nuclear proliferation and Islamo-Fascism. At the same time, it offers real and specific recommendations for a realistic multilateral cooperation with like minded democracies interested in the same robust and energetic war against the Terror Masters. And this means, finally, that the UN, in Babbin's words should no longer be "an international enclave, no longer American territory. It is elegant, but still politically and intellectually a slum. Turtle Bay needs to be reclaimed for America, and so does our foreign polciy with Old Europe. President Bush has begun the process. Now is the time to finish the job."

29 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bill Muehlenberg

Time to get out

Reviewed in the United States on October 14, 2006

Verified Purchase

Like many ideas, the desire to set up a structure such as the UN was probably well-motivated and a legitimate concept at the time. But a strong argument can be made that the UN no longer serves its original purpose, and may in fact be acting against its founding ideals.

That is certainly the case being made by Jed Babbin, a leading American national security analyst. He argues that the UN has become a moribund, corrupt, biased and bloated bureaucracy which does little to promote the good of the world, but much to support tyrants, dictators and leftwing causes, as well as its own longevity.

When the UN was formed in 1945, it had some laudable aims. But also built into the original UN charter were some glaring defects, argues Babbin. The first error was to apply the doctrine of the equality of all men to nations. But not all nations are equal. Dictatorships, terrorist states, and Communist states are simply not on a par with free, democratic states.

Another problem is that "any nation, pseudo-nation, or thugocracy such as Iran under the mullahs" can be a member of the UN. This makes the whole exercise of peacekeeping and the promotion of human rights become counterproductive.

And the lack of accountability and a system of checks and balances makes the UN answerable to no one. Thus the opportunities for mismanagement and corruption are many.

Indeed, the Oil-for-Food scandal is a classic case in point. This debacle has yet to fully see the light of day, but we do know that the UN was implicitly involved in this. Indeed, UN officials provided Saddam Hussein with the means to "bribe politicians, to deprive his people of needed food and medicine, and to literally steal billions of dollars".

Not only was this the biggest financial scandal of the UN, much of the money siphoned off ended up lining the pockets of UN bureaucrats, along with various politicians.

The UN has been especially impotent to deal with terrorism. But worse than that, it has tended to side with the terrorists and tyrants over-against he US and much of the West. The democratic members of the UN seek to abide by its resolutions, but rogue states regularly flaunt them. By routinely cooperating with terrorists, the UN is not making the world a safer and more peaceful place, says Babbin.

He argues that reform of the UN is probably impossible, and the wisest course for the US may be to simply pull out altogether. Indeed, given that is directly and indirectly pumps around $7 billion a year into the UN (being its largest benefactor), and gets nothing but grief and hostility in return, that may not be a bad option.

Babbin says a coalition of like minded states could seek to do what the UN was meant to do, but has been unable or unwilling to do. Such a proposal may or may not be workable. But to stay in a system that has proven to be a failure is certainly not the way to proceed.

Other books have been recently written making a similar case to Babbin's. But if just one volume is to be consulted, this would be a good starting place indeed.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Gregory Olsen

Nothing we haven't heard before

Reviewed in the United States on July 17, 2004

Verified Purchase

This book is a synthesis of what you have been hearing on every right-wing talk radio show for a decade or more. The book argues that the US needs to get out of the UN because the UN functions solely to constrain US power, and that the UN lacks any moral authority because it is dominated by Third World authoritarian regimes voting as a bloc.
The US and other Western Democracies need to form a "new UN" whose membership is exclusively nations that respect individual rights. That is the only way to have an international decisionmaking body with any moral authority.
The last half of the book is essentially a tirade on the decadence of the French and other continental European nations. That is easily skipped, if you have read Robert Kagan's Of Paradise and Power. There is no need to read the last half of the book, except for the chapter on reforming NATO. Babbin wants NATO preserved (not a common opinion on right-wing talk radio). But he does want to reform it, so that only nations that can maintain a military readiness technologically compatible with the US should be able to participate in NATO planning, joint exercises, etc. This is because only the British and French have maintained their military expenditures at a level to maintain any level of readiness. The French though have not been a part of NATO command structure since the 1960s, so they don't participate in a meaningful way right now.
Kagan is certainly more scholarly than Babbin in his delivery. Babbin's book has the pacing and hyperbole of a speech being given to a company of Army Rangers.

19 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Caped Crusader

Bursting the Sacrosanct UN Bubble

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 12, 2011

Verified Purchase

Why is it that when people think of the UN, they immediately think of some higher entity, almost as if it is something sent down from above; with impeachable credentials and a veritable do-good organisation which only a tyrant would object to? Indeed, the vision of the UN is consistent with its founding principles and aims: that of working towards a better world, and world peace. Unfortunately, the impression and founding principles have long ceased to be a reality. Far from tyrants and despots opposing the UN, they now control it, as Jed Babbin, former US Undersecretary to the UN, inconveniently points out.

This is an organisation where, shortly after the attacks of 9/11, created the Counter-Terrorism Committee. The one small catch is that the UN can't decide on a definition for terrorism. This impedes the UN's effectiveness when it comes to terror-sponsoring states, as was evident with Iraq . At the same time, one of its bodies, the ICC (International Criminal Court) expands its definition of war crimes far beyond that of the Geneva Conventions, going so far as to include `environmental damage' on the battlefield (!) as a war crime. Simultaneously, the UN's IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) lets Iran off the hook, giving it more time to pursue its nuclear aspirations.

Throughout, Babbin delivers a fact-packed punch against the myth of the democratic UN and its undemocratic cronies. The UN is hopeless because it contains many Third World states that are hostile to the West. They're hostile, not because as the rhetoric goes, they fear `capitalism' or `imperialism', but because they know that the single biggest threat to their regimes is democracy.

Throughout, Babbin interviews and talks to key officials, advisers and military, in helping to bring light on the inner workings there. Dennis Goodman said about the culture of the UN: "They don't care whether they're talking about commodity prices or transnational corporations. Every resolution had to end with the magic words "The secretary-general should study this resolution and report back", thus ensuring another round of meetings and more study... And longer job security for the bureaucrats."

Also on the list is the Oil-For-Food scandal; Clinton's debacle in Somalia and his approach to the UN, with how he lost the trust of the military as a result; former Secretary General Kofi Annan's power struggle with the US, with the 2003 attempt at an alleged UN reform, internet restrictions, and more.

In the second half of the book, after Babbin talks about moving out of the UN and possible alternatives, he talks about the European community and NATO. He attempts to persuade of the need for Europe to drastically improve its defence spending, if organisations such as NATO are to maintain their purpose. Babbin brilliantly fights the American corner here, chastising the irresponsible attitude in Europe that it is `more sophisticated' because `it has given up military solutions to its problems after two costly wars' (as a diplomat asserted to Babbin). Babbin retorts `That is non-sense, it took American military action - at great cost in blood and treasure - to save Europe from itself, twice.'

What I found quite interesting is just how many topics Babbin predicted correctly. He states that Socialist Europe is on the verge of collapse, which I laughed at as this is just the kind of statement leftists would have ridiculed in 2004. But when I first read this (in 2010) the riots in Greece were just breaking. But Babbin also states that Europe hasn't even woken up to where it's headed . And many would argue it still hasn't. Babbin reports that even as far back as the 1991 Gulf War, the allies' military was already a decade behind the American's. (Again, at the time of reading this I was hearing on the news about the British forces in Afghanistan complaining about equipment.)

This is a fact-packed little book, much better and with more info than I was expecting from a book of this size. He also includes a little international law, as well as some of the Geneva Conventions which are equally easy to read as well as informative. It has to be said, this was written in the run-up to the US presidential elections of 2004, and he occasionally has a go at John Kerry (?), and roots for George W Bush. But if you can overlook that, this is an informative book which could not only serve as an intro to many aspects on the UN, the EU and the relationship between the two continents, but provide some enlightening insights to the more informed reader as well.

Further reading:

America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It

One person found this helpful

See more reviews

Price		$27.95
AmazonGlobal Shipping		$9.92
Estimated Import Fees Deposit		$0.00

Total		$37.87

Return this item for free

Shipping & Fee Details

Image Unavailable

Follow the author