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Summary: Neoconservatives are a danger to the world
Review: Mr Kagan, the writer of this book, is founder and director of the New American Century. It's basically a group og neoconservates and thinks strictly in good-bad terms. It wants a new cold war, but this time without Europe, because they think the US is almighty and we should all be ruled by the US through their values. This time they see China as a great danger and try in all ways feed the "China threat" theory. This view is a danger to the world and worldpeace, it's very stupid. I strongly oppose the view of mr Kagan. Therefore I don't recommend this book.
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Summary: Good book, but think twice about Kagan's conclusions
Review: This book forces you to rethink the common world view and the relationship between Europe and America. Kagan's prose is very clear, well-written and easy to follow and he argues quite convincingly. He has a good point that Western Europe has lived under America's protecting umbrella since WW2 and made the Europeans to believe that machtpolitik, that is the necessity to use military force, no longer is needed and that laws and international cooperation is the only way to build a better world. It worked fine for civilized and well-behaving European states in the EU, but it obviously doesn't work that well with more badly brought-up leaders as Kim Jong-Il. Or Hitler for that matter.Clearly the rift between Europeans and Americans is deeper than many think, and clearly both sides have some serious issues to discuss. But I don't agree with Kagan's implicit conclusions - that the rift is almost impossible to heal and that Europe and USA have different roadmaps that are bound to clash an increasing number of times in the future. Kagan is exaggerating the differences. Europe lacks the Americans' military power and is occupied with the European integration most of the time, but it does not mean that they will disagree in all important matters in the future. They still share the same visions. But I think that Europe, and especially France, feels a strong threat to be sidelined and ignored by America. Europe is not as important for America as it was during the Cold War. Instead, it is directing its interest towards Southeast Asia where the next superpower, China, is. Kagan's opening phrase - "It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world, or even that they occupy the same world" - more or less feels like an excuse to cut the old traditional ropes with Europe and start building new alliances that are better suited for the coming world order. If this is true both Europeans and Americans have a reason to be worried about the future, espacially as Kagan will start working for vice president Cheney this summer.
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Summary: What America wants to do!
Review: Finally, after searching for books that describe the New World Order in English, I have finally came up with one. Mr Kagan, explains to the west what Muslims and Arabs beleive of the American Govt. : They are trieng to take over the world. And Europe....well it is discussed deeply in his highly graded book. I promote this book to anyone into politics or interested about 'the war on terror'
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Summary: Not bad for the price
Review: I would recommend the book for the average American who doesn't keep up to date with how the world is changing and the actions the Clinton and Bush administrations made and are making. But for someone who is a history or current events heavy duty reader, the book is basically full of information we already know. Like issues of things like the Marshal Plan and how the U S's generosity has been a double edge sword. Or how our friend become our enemies and vise versa. Publications like the Nation magazine and Mother Jones have been proving this point for years. Even conservative publications like the National Review and The Weekly Standard have even had articles on this...
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Summary: Don't believe any negative reviews . . . GREAT book!
Review: This book is an excellent intro to the ideas and politics underlying the relationship between the US and Europe. It presents a relatively unbiased macro view, is short and to the point, makes cogent, compeling arguments and is genuinely interesting. It brings together all of the "whats" and pairs them with a "why."
Don't let the silly negative reviews posted here disuade you--these are disgruntled, arm-chair politicians with wounded egos. I'd buy this book again. In fact, I plan on sending it to several of my European friends as a gift. It didn't make me like France any better, but at least I understand where the French are coming from.
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Summary: To Ted Rushton
Review: I haven't read the book (yet), but I have an issue with one of the reviews. Mr. Rushton, in your review, you stated "France, under De Gaulle, built a "force de frappe" merely to bolster their self-esteem ("frappe" translates as "milkshake")."
Actually "Frappe" means to hit or strike. Please do not mislead the readers of this site.
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Summary: Important only because of who is saying it
Review: This book has few ideas to put across. (in all reality it is an essay expanded to fill a thin book) kagan correctly makes the case that us is now acting from a position of strength and europe from one of weakness. and then he makes it again. and again. ... it is not an intellectuals book - it glosses over the many drawbacks of the aggressive stance it advocates. kagan makes the analogy that earlier europe was in the position of strength and advocated war and america advocated peaceful solutions when weak. yet, he likes to think that america will avoid all the problems europe faced. again, one sided and narrow in his approach. finally, he sees everything in black and white like much of the current administration - the value of the book stems from the fact that it reveals the thinking of the current team in the white house. other than that, it's opinionated and worthless as literature.
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Summary: Psychosis and paranoia as foreign policy
Review: This book states the neo-conservative program for America and the world: go-it-alone, shuck your friends and allies, and apply military force liberally. One can read in Suetonius's 'Lives of the Caesars' how Julius Caesar attacked his friends as well as his enemies, always for purely personal gain. Is this the right example for America to follow? According to the neo-cons, it is. Their stated premise is that America does not have the same interests as Europe. This is of course not even close to the truth, but they want to make it true by shucking Europe and misusing military power to enforce their misconception of American ideas on the rest of the world. It is clear that neither Europe nor any other country wants neo-con principles forced on it.I, as American, do not want neo-con principles forced on me! When a people is ready for a change, they make it internally, as the example of the collapse of the USSR should have taught us. The neo-conservatives are the people who stole the election in Florida (both Jeb Bush and Rumsfeld signed the 1997 neo-con 'Statement of Principles', as you can read...and then used the fear an anger from 9/11 as an excuse to invade Iraq 'in order to look for and find weapons of mass destruction'. What they really wan is quite different from what the Bush Administration has told us, but their own books (seeWilliam Kristol's 'The War Over Iraq') inform us of their desires: they want a military base in Iraq for further military invasions and, of course, they want to control the oil.
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Summary: Hits the Nail on the Head.
Review: This is a sane, succinct, accurate, and very timely appraisal of the state of affairs between the U.S. and Europe. (It also is the only book I've ever read more than once, the other being The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.) This book, which is actually an expanded essay, is so good that it is hard to imagine anyone finding fault with it, whether one is a "dove" or a "hawk" or neither. I do not believe that great political interest or acumen is necessary in order to grasp what Kagan so beautifully lays out. Read it. You won't regret it.
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Summary: Informative, Insightful, Fair, yet General
Review: This new essay by Robert Kagan offers important insights into the ideological differences between the current course of American and European foreign policies. The vital asset of this book is that it makes no value judgement of competing systems of thought, but rather evaluates, within historical situations, the meaning of diverse perspectives on international relations. What is also of major importance here is the examination, albeit cursory, of how the current ideals of the European experiment are a culmination of a history of Western political thought, and have grown out of the fundamental desires behind American efforts on the international stage, American ideals which in turn emerged from European roots. The final argument of the book may pose a controversy of sorts, but the focus on knowing, understanding, and celebrating the mutual success that has led to peace in Europe, and to a new and vigorous passion for real humanitarian advances around the world, is the real contribution of this work. The positioning of power politics within the sphere of power itself, and apart from doctrine or cultural necessity, helps to underscore the mutual benefits of an increasingly complex but civilized Europe, as well as the root meaning, and the better hopes, of any American exercise of hegemony, which should remain wary of empire at all times. In short, Kagan artfully demonstrates that the postmodern Europe is in many ways the world America has aspired to, and that current frictions are a difference in action, a difference in priority, but not a difference in ideals or in political goals.
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