Rating: 
Summary: Great case studies; terrible maps.
Review: "Chessboard" provides a very readable primer on foreign policy in its first half, followed by excellent case studies of the various sub-regions that make up its over-all focus, Eurasia. The only glaring weakness of the book is the terrible supporting maps that are greatly needed to fully appreciate the in-depth geographic analysis and description. Whether you have just a cursory understanding of the region or a better than average grasp, you'll find the book compelling and educational.
Rating: 
Summary: America's Master of Strategy on Eurasian Center of Gravity
Review: Anyone concerned with America's national security should be reading this book. The fact that it is four years old (older if one considers the intellectual gestation period), simply adds historical proof that its author is, as the Chinese have noted publicly, America's greatest strategist. This book is written in plain English. That alone sets it apart from the next level down. This is a carefully presented essay that makes eminent sense. It deals with the most important region in the world: the troubled Eurasian land mass. Rich in resources, rife with ethnic conflict and water scarcity issues, it is surrounded by major powers with global ambitions: France and Germany to the West, Russia to the North, China to East, and Iran and Turkey to the South. A number of clearly presented maps add considerable value to the book. With a level of calm and reason that is rare in books of this sort, Brzezinski provides an understandable yet sophisticated articulation of a real-world "grand strategy" essential to the future of America in this new century. His strategic vision honors both France and Germany as co-equal and vital elements of a new European community; shows how the larger Europe (ultimately co-equal to America) is essential to the salvation of Russia; makes the case for an American-Chinese strategic accommodation as the anchor for America's involvement in Eurasia; carefully integrates America's direct and special relations with Japan, Korea, and India as the bowl beneath China and Eurasia, and then concludes with decisive evaluations of the future importance of drawing Turkey into the European community while encouraging Iranian-Turkish collaboration and Iranian commercial and commodities channels from Eurasia out to the world. In passing, the author validates Australia's new strategy of working closely with Indonesia to resolve the latter's many ethnic issues while establishing a southern line against excessive Chinese influence in the region. There are numerous subtle and deep insights throughout the book, from the observation that war may now be a luxury only the poorest of nations can afford, to why China should consider America its natural ally and why Russia is at risk of becoming genetically Asian instead of European within a generation or two. The author proposes a new Trans-Eurasian Security System (TESS) that engages Russia, China, Japan and America-one would assume that at some point Turkey, Iran, and the new Europe would be included. The author gores a number a sacred oxen, including those associated with the demonization of Iran (this should end) and the exaggeration of China as a global threat (it will at best be a regional super-power at the high end of Third World per capita earnings). While other poor Nations have defeated America decisively (Viet-Nam, for example), the author deliberately itemizes China's 3 million men under arms, it's 9,400 tanks and 5,224 fighters, as well as its 57 surface ships and 53 submarines, and offers his final judgment that China and America have too many common interests to permit a demonization of China to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, as it might if China were confronted across the board and denied its reasonable historical claim to having influence over the region that hosts the "Middle Kingdom." A special note is in order about the importance of this book as an antidote to two viral infections now afflicting many otherwise excellent thinkers. This book is a marvelous, deeply grounded treatment of the historical constancy of strategy qua "enduring interests" and grand players-as much as one may wish to speculate about the globalization and localization of international politics, Brzezinski puts it all in a grand strategic context that is compelling in its logic as well as its understanding of the deep cultural threads that we must weave together if we are to survive one another's less enlightened machinations. Another strength of the book is its avoidance of the technophilia that has corrupted strategic thinking at the highest levels. The Revolution in Military Affairs and the "systems of systems", while well-intentioned, are both devoid of serious strategic reasoning-as Colin Gray among others have pointed out, technology is not strategy, nor does it follow that strong technology will defeat an enemy with weak technology but a stronger strategic culture and the ability to wage war by means other than force on force. This book, together with Colin Gray's "Modern Strategy", Robert Young Pelton's "World's Most Dangerous Places", the two books by Robert Kaplan on his travels in the Eurasian region, and both Michael Klare's book on "Resource Wars" as well as Marc de Villier's book on "Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource", will make any intelligent person as conversant as they need to be with the most pressing geopolitical issues of our time. If one adds Joe Thorton's book on Pandora's Poison, David Helvarg's book on "Blue Frontier: Saving America's Living Seas", Larrie Garrett's book "Betrayal of Trust: The Collapse of Global Public Health", and William Shawcross on "Deliver Us From Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords, and a World of Endless Conflict", the lesser but still vital long-term issues of the environment, public health, and ethnic conflict will be fully appreciated. I mention all these books deliberately, to make the point that it is Brzezinski's book that is both the foundation and the capstone for integrating the analysis from these other diverse renditions into a grand strategy. No one else has done it. He is America's foremost strategist and likely to remain so for some time to come.
Rating:
Summary: America the Super Global Power? well just maybe.
Review: A New York Times best seller it ain't, nor are nor will any of his other many books be best sellers.
Brzezinski was born in Poland in 1928. At the age of 32 he taught at Columbia from 1960 to 1977 at which time President Carter tapped him to be National Seculrity Adviser, a job he held until 1981, paralelling Carter's term of Presidency. He returned to Columbia following his government service. He is a counselor at the center for strategic and International studies and Professor of American Foreign policy at the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins Universiy. I am first of all impressed with his grasp of a subject I would just as soon ignore. Then he excites the reader with his prognosis or projections of various coalitions and how they impact on America, the nation he refers to as the first and the last global power. He builds up a real fear of the unknown. We all realized China is the most populous nation on earth and, ergo,it must be feared if for no other reason than the sheer weight of the numbers. I relied on the old idiom that there was strength in numbers. I alwalys felt it would take light years for China to raise to the level of the Soviet Union. I am viewing that change every day and it is not the arming of the citizens, of whom there are so many, but rather the socio/economic changes taking place in that country. India has never conjured up any threat or fear to me. It is a society of haves and have-nots. Their nuclear capabilities have always struck me as meaningless. Yet after reading this book I am impressed with the potential power of this part of the world. Eurasia as Brzezinski calls it. A cursory look at the map he presents on page 23, entitled American Global Supremeacy and we suddenly realize the United States has little influence in the Area he calls Eurasia other than Japan and a tenuous foothold in the Middle East. Our geopolitical preponderance is primarily in NATO and far off Australia. The Eurasian Balkans is open for a dominant force to intervene as the U.S. has done in the traditional Balkans. Russia, Turkey and Iran need the Eurasian Balkans for security. The area is unquestionably unstable and yet these nations are a tremendous source of natural resources and more and more become important as a potential economic prize. I frankly am quick to admit I never realized there were so many independant nations under the influence of the Soviet Union. Particulary those twenty or more nations ending with "stans". The area is fraught with religious differences not experiencing or expecting any ecumenical brotherhood in the near future. In my opinion the answer to religious unrest is economic upturn under a democracy that will improve the quality of life for the have-nots. America it seems, is in the catbird seat and Brzezinski articulates the formula America must follow to maintain it's global super power status. I found the work an excellent reference work for one's library to enable one to follow or keep score on the geopolitical thrusts and parlays of all the the participants. I for one have had a tendancy to embrace historical views and perceptions of any nation and all the baggage that is attendant thereto as the true and actual condition existing. I found this book teaches me to ponder those historical perceptions when I consider the role of any nation in the grander scheme of things. I had planned to return to the book to revisit those predictions of the author to test his credibility7. I soon realized how utterly incredulous of me. I accept the author as an expert and inspirational writer I come away from this book not satisfied or happy or sad but thankful I read it since I now think thoughts and digest world news from an entirely different perspective. It would serve us all well to have office seekers tested on the data contained herein as a prerequsite to holding national office.
Rating:
Summary: A Justification for American Supremacy or a Point of View?
Review: An in-depth analysis of the current Eurasian geo-pilotical situation and an interesting reading despite its strong American bias. The book is a multifacetous look at the modern balance of power in a region that Brzezinski considers vital for the world stability--Eurasia--and all this in view of the tremendously global American supremacy. With its marked pro-American orientation, it is clearly aimed at US rather than foreign audience, and is a good example of the use of ideology as a political tool and an instrument for mobilization of public support for the cause of "the first, only and last" global superpower. By emphasizing the significance of the US as the world's largest peacekeeper and stressing its mission as a guarantor of global stability a multitude of times, this book seeks to justify the monopolarity of the modern political world, in which all de jure and de facto political actors should coordinate their actions with America. Brzezinski tries to explore the unique situation of each one of them and to offer some viable solutions for their problems; I do think, though, that most of the times he is looking for possible channels for American influence under the cover of global well-being. Some of the solutions he offers presume hard-to-envision developments, such as Russia willingly dropping its imperial aspirations towards former spheres of influence and becoming a benevolent strategic partner of the United States; others are viable and should be duly taken into consideration by geostrategists. Nevertheless, as the very end of the book he offers an insightful look into the future of the world, and admits some week points in the American position while exploring the possible outcomes of the US global leadership. Although it can hardly offer much new information to readers more advanced in the studies of international relations, it still provides an opportunity to look at different aspects of policy making in regions of great importance spotlighted in Brzezinski's discussion, and will definitely be useful to beginning IR students, as well as to everybody interested in a more detailed look at the regional and global politics. Although I am not questioning Brzezisnki's name and his significance as a geopolitical scientist, for non-American readers I would recommend getting other view-points as well.
Rating:
Summary: Into the mind of the US foreign policy machine..............
Review: Brzezinski essentially tells us what needs to be done to preserve U.S hegemony. Our foreign policy aims to mimic his suggestions, but our leaders tell us these things are done in the "name of freedom" and so on. Read this book if you want to know the REAL reason why the U.S military is spread all over the world, and why we go to war. Yes, he is an apologist for imperialism, but after reading this book you will think twice after hearing knee-jerk phrases like "evil doers", "axis of evil", "weapons of mass destruction", "thumbing his nose at the world", and the like.
Rating:
Summary: Expert Analysis:
Review: Brzezinski is familiarly precinct, efficient and far reaching. In this book he puts on display his characteristically deep analytic skills on a topic he has spent many years as a professional strategist and lecturer. Though at the time of its publishing, when the world was in a much more optimistic mood and globalism was on the march, his approach seemed to hark back to a bygone era, nowadays in this time of hawkish politics, he does not seem to be that far off the mark. His rationalism should not be confused with the views of the current ideologues on the right though.
Certainly, his take on US [power], and its logic of inevitability, may not be that acceptable to some, but still, it only reflects reality, not necessarily a moral judgment. Regardless, rather than simply focusing on and explaining the present based on recent past, like many professional talking heads do, he has actually made some bold projections into far future.
He points at Asia as the center of this grand chess game and concludes it is there where the final moves will be played out. With his excellent knowledge of Eastern Europe, Russia and Far East, he makes an excellent argument.
His few attempts at placing Middle East and Islam in the picture fall far short though; he fails to go beyond worn-out clichés. When was the last time an Islamic revolution got exported anywhere, really?
This is a valuable and interesting book reveals much about super-power strategic thinking process, written very clearly, and I added the last star for his efforts to draw a map of the future geo-politics. Highly recommended for anyone interested in these topics.
Rating:
Summary: Expert Analysis:
Review: Brzezinski is familiarly precinct, efficient and far reaching. In this book he puts on display his characteristically deep analytic skills on a topic he has spent many years as a professional strategist and lecturer. Though at the time of its publishing, when the world was in a much more optimistic mood and globalism was on the march, his approach seemed to hark back to a bygone era, nowadays in this time of hawkish politics, he does not seem to be that far off the mark. His rationalism should not be confused with the views of the current ideologues on the right though.
Certainly, his take on US [power], and its logic of inevitability, may not be that acceptable to some, but still, it only reflects reality, not necessarily a moral judgment. Regardless, rather than simply focusing on and explaining the present based on recent past, like many professional talking heads do, he has actually made some bold projections into far future.
He points at Asia as the center of this grand chess game and concludes it is there where the final moves will be played out. With his excellent knowledge of Eastern Europe, Russia and Far East, he makes an excellent argument.
His few attempts at placing Middle East and Islam in the picture fall far short though; he fails to go beyond worn-out clichés. When was the last time an Islamic revolution got exported anywhere, really?
This is a valuable and interesting book reveals much about super-power strategic thinking process, written very clearly, and I added the last star for his efforts to draw a map of the future geo-politics. Highly recommended for anyone interested in these topics.
Rating:
Summary: If you're wondering why "they" hate us?
Review: Brzezinski is one of the most brilliant people you will ever read on international relations and global politics, and anyone who finds this book interesting will certainly want to check out his more recently published "The Choice," which treads similar ground. However, the reason I opted to review this book instead is because "The Choice", which came out in the wake of 9/11, is written in a somewhat humbler tone that partially camouflages the inherent lunacy of the man's politics (well I personally don't see a contradiction between being brilliant and being a right wing nut).
Anyway, if you'd like a bald-face summation of Brzezinski's politics, he gives it to you, without spin, on p. 40 (while you're reading it, try to keep in mind this man is one of the architects of our nation's foreign policy):
"In brief, for the United States, Eurasian geostrategy involves the purposeful management of geostrategically dynamic states and the careful handling of geopolitically catalytic states, in keeping with the twin interests of America in the short-term preservation of its unique global power and in the long-run transformation of it into increasingly institutionalized global cooperation. To put it in a terminiology that hearkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three grand imperatives of imperial [that is, AMERICAN] geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together."
So what is "The Choice" that the United States has to make in the author's latest book? Either the United States has to dominate the planet alone, or it should "lead" other nations to complicitly in our total global hegemony.
Gore Vidal, Pat Buchanan, SOMEBODY please save us from people like this!
Anyway, anyone who reads Brzezinski today should have little trouble fathoming our present troubles concering the hubristic global over-extension of a soon-to-be-bankrupt empire. Hopefully there will be later generations of politicos who'll come to see B. and others like him as the Cold War Dinosaurs and rank apologists for the Ruling Elite that they are.
Rating:
Summary: Probably one of the best books of the decade
Review: Brzezinski mastery on strategic subjects, his personal experience and clear definition provide a well documented insight on American goals and their historical precedence. The book easily stands next to 'Rise and Fall of Great Power' of Paul Kennedy and 'Clash of Civilisation' of Samuel Huntington. No surprise his reasoning deeply influenced US policies during the last decades. Reality is unfortunately less friendly with the US. 20th century gave a hard lesson. In 1900, people firmly believed that only 3 powers would survive: British Empire, United States and Russia. Some added Germany without much conviction, nobody talked of France, Japan. China was ready to be carved up and India was a British colony. In 2000, United States are at the top but with deficits in line with the British Empire a century ago. Japan nobody talked about is world second largest economy and despite loss of WW II is presently achieving its sphere of Coprosperity in South-East Asia, this time with the tacit approval of most partners. Germany is world third largest economy and achieved all its geostrategical targets (including integrating all of Europe), even while loosing two world wars and being divided for 45 years. France was number four and still is number four. The British Empire no longer exists, Hong Kong returned to China, Britain is becoming more federal and is at position 5. China did not only chase all foreigners but is a serious world player. India is the other Asian giant whose shadow starts looming. And Russia collapsed. Lessons learned: have a strong culture, good demographics, well educated people, keep up with technology, no trade or finance deficit and be stubborn. And the importance of military forces: China used guerilla, India non-violence, Japan and Germany are more succesful with their industrial strategy, France survived with a mix of everything. Britain lost no battle and Russia was a superpower. Draw your own conclusions. Nevertheless, an excellent book and a must read.
Rating:
Summary: Probably one of the best books of the decade
Review: Brzezinski mastery on strategic subjects, his personal experience and clear definition provide a well documented study on American goals and their historical precedence. The book stands next to 'Rise and Fall of Great Power' of Paul Kennedy and 'Clash of Civilisation' of Samuel Huntington. No surprise his reasoning deeply influenced US policies during the last decades. But a conclusion based on geostrategic and military goals only is not complete without other elements of power (culture, society, education, technology, economy and cultural resilience). 20th century gave us hard lessons. In 1900, people firmly believed that only 3 powers would survive: British Empire, United States and Russia. Some added Germany without much conviction, nobody talked of France or Japan. China was ready to be carved up and India was a British colony. In 2000, United States are at the top but with deficits in line with the British Empire a century ago. Japan nobody talked about is world second largest economy and despite loss of WW II is presently achieving its sphere of Coprosperity in South-East and East Asia. This time with the tacit approval of most partners. Germany is world third largest economy and achieved all its geostrategical targets (including integrating all of Europe and chasing the British out of India), even while loosing two world wars and being divided for 45 years. France was number four and still is number four. The British Empire no longer exists, Hong Kong returned to China, Britain is becoming more federal and is at position 5. China did not only chase all foreigners but is a serious world player. India is the other Asian giant whose shadow starts looming. And Russia collapsed. To resize the importance of military forces: China used guerilla, India non-violence, Japan and Germany are more succesful with their industrial strategy, France survived with a mix of culture, trade, high-tech (Concorde, TGV,..), diplomacy and military. Britain did not loose a war and Russia was a superpower. After reading this excellent book, everybody will be able to draw his own conclusions.
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