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Also by Francis Fukuyama:

The Origins Of Political Order, April 2011
Hardcover
The End of History and the Last Man, February 2006
Trade Size (reprint)
America at the Crossroads, February 2006
Hardcover
Nation-Building, February 2006
Hardcover

AMERICA AT THE CROSSROADS
By: Francis Fukuyama

Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy

Yale University Press
February 2006
240 pages
ISBN: 0300113994
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Political

Francis Fukuyama’s criticism of the Iraq war put him at odds with neoconservative friends both within and outside the Bush administration. Here he explains how, in its decision to invade Iraq, the Bush administration failed in its stewardship of American foreign policy. First, the administration wrongly made preventive war the central tenet of its foreign policy. In addition, it badly misjudged the global reaction to its exercise of “benevolent hegemony.” And finally, it failed to appreciate the difficulties involved in large-scale social engineering, grossly underestimating the difficulties involved in establishing a successful democratic government in Iraq.

Fukuyama explores the contention by the Bush administration’s critics that it had a neoconservative agenda that dictated its foreign policy during the president’s first term. Providing a fascinating history of the varied strands of neoconservative thought since the 1930s, Fukuyama argues that the movement’s legacy is a complex one that can be interpreted quite differently than it was after the end of the Cold War. Analyzing the Bush administration’s miscalculations in responding to the post–September 11 challenge, Fukuyama proposes a new approach to American foreign policy through which such mistakes might be turned around—one in which the positive aspects of the neoconservative legacy are joined with a more realistic view of the way American power can be used around the world.

Media Buzz

Talk of the Nation - May 14, 2007
Daily Show with Jon Stewart - May 25, 2006
Daily Show with Jon Stewart - May 11, 2006
Talk of the Nation - April 11, 2006
Talk of the Nation - April 10, 2006
Charlie Rose - March 20, 2006
Diane Rehm Show - NPR - March 17, 2006
Lou Dobbs Tonight - March 16, 2006
Weekends with Maury and Connie - March 4, 2006
Morning Edition - March 1, 2006