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How The Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy And Foreign Policy Screws Up The Democrats
Wiley
May 2008
On Sale: April 21, 2008
272 pages ISBN: 047008622X EAN: 9780470086223 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
When mainstream Democratic politicians talk about Iraq, why
do they sound more like Republicans than like the actual
Democratic citizens they claim to represent? Are they simply
ducking for cover from the with-us-or-against-us Republican
onslaught? Are Democrats actually buying into the right
wing's dark, pessimistic vision of endless conflict combined
with blinkered optimism about the boundless utility of
military force? Has the liberal tradition failed to provide
useful principles on which to build and conduct foreign policy? In Heads in the Sand, fast-rising political observer and
commentator Matthew Yglesias reveals the wrong-headed
foreign policy stance of conservatives, neocons, and the
Republican Party for what it is—aggressive nationalism, or,
to be impolite, a new version of old-fashioned imperialism.
He then examines how Democrats and progressives have
responded to the conservative agenda, from mistakenly
labeling it isolationism to repeated calls for big, bold,
new ideas and the failure to actually produce any. Writing with wit, passion, and keen insight, Yglesias
reminds us of the rich tradition of liberal internationalism
that, developed by Democrats, was used with great success by
both Democratic and Republican administrations for more than
fifty years. It was, in fact, the foreign policy strategy
that revived Europe after World War II, established the
United Nations, and won the Cold War. Based on the principle of promoting global order through
international law and stable institutions, liberal
internationalism is far from perfect and not nearly sexy
enough to appeal to chest-thumping hawks. But, as Yglesias
demonstrates, exercised with patience, flexibility, and
restraint by nine American presidents, it has produced more
peace, prosperity, and international harmony than any other
approach. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, it's the worst
form of foreign policy, except for all the others. The forces opposed to liberal internationalism, however, are
large and growing. And, Yglesias reveals, they're not all on
the far right. He presents a startling revelation of how
many moderates, liberals, and even far-left progressives
seem more than happy to use America's military might to
accomplish their objectives. While Democrats have come unmoored from their foreign-policy
principles for multiple and complex reasons, Matthew
Yglesias makes it clear that the path to redemption is open,
if not always pothole-free. Americans no longer support
reckless Republican policies and the time is ripe—not for a
new direction, but for the return of a tried-and-true
direction. With Heads in the Sand, he provides a starting
point for politicians, policymakers, pundits, and citizens
alike to return America to its role as leader of a
peace-loving and cooperative international community.
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