Robert Kagan

Robert Kagan, the New York Times bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power and one of the countrys most influential strategic thinkers, reaffirms the importance of United Statess global leadership in this timely and important book. Upon its initial publication, The World America Made became one of the most talked about political books of the year, influencing Barack Obamas 2012 State of the Union address and shaping the thought of both the Obama and Romney presidential campaigns. In these incisive and engaging pages, Kagan responds to those who anticipateor even long fora post-American world order by showing what a decline in Americas influence would truly mean for the United States and the rest of the world, as the vital institutions, economies, and ideals currently supported by American power wane or disappear. As Kagan notes, it has happened before: one need only to consider the consequences of the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I. This book is a powerful warning that America need not and dare not decline by committing preemptive superpower suicide.

Kagan argues that hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have proved wrong. He stresses that peoples of the liberal world need to choose whether they want to shape it or let others shape it for them. Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. Nation-states remain as strong as ever, as do the old, explosive forces of ambitious nationalism. The world remains "unipolar," but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict. Communism is dead, but a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics. Finally, radical Islamists are waging a violent struggle against the modern secular cultures and powers that, in their view, have dominated, penetrated, and polluted their Islamic world. The grand expectation that after the Cold War the world would enter an era of international geopolitical convergence has proven wrong. For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in "The Return of History and the End of" "Dreams," Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.

Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities. Great powers are once again competing for geopolitical influence. International competition between the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raises new threats of regional conflict. The expectation that after the Cold War the world had entered an era of international convergence has proved wrong. We have entered an age of divergence. In The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the questions facing the liberal democratic world today. For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. But now History has returned, and the peoples of the liberal world need to choose whether they want to shape it or let others shape it for them.

An NPR Book of the YearAt the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was one of the worlds richest, most populous, most technologically advanced nations. It was also a nation divided along numerous fault lines, with conflicting aspirations and concerns pulling it in different directions. And it was a nation unsure about the role it wanted to play in the world, if any. Americans were the beneficiaries of a global order they had no responsibility for maintaining.Many preferred to avoid being drawn into what seemed an ever more competitive, conflictual, and militarized international environment. However, many also were eager to see the United States taking a share of international responsibility, working with others to preserve peace and advance civilization. The story of American foreign policy in the first four decades of the twentieth century is about the effort to do both - "to adjust the nation to its new position without sacrificing the principles developed in the past," as one contemporary put it. This would prove a difficult task. The collapse of British naval power, combined with the rise of Germany and Japan, suddenly placed the United States in a pivotal position. American military power helped defeat Germany in the First World War, and the peace that followed was significantly shaped by a U.S. president. But Americans recoiled from their deep involvement in world affairs, and for the next two decades, they sat by as fascism and tyranny spread unchecked, ultimately causing the liberal world order to fall apart. Americas resulting intervention in the Second World War marked the beginning of a new era, for the United States and for the world.Brilliant and insightful, The Ghost at the Feast shows both the perils of American withdrawal from the world and the price of international responsibility.

European leaders, increasingly disturbed by U.S. policy and actions abroad, feel they are headed for a moment of truth. After years of mutual resentment and tension, there is a sudden recognition that the real interests of America and its allies are diverging sharply and that the trans-atlantic relationship itself has changed, possibly irreversibly. Europe sees the United States as high-handed, unilateralist, and unnecessarily belligerent; the United States sees Europe as spent, unserious, and weak. The anger and mistrust on both sides are hardening into incomprehension. Tracing the widely differing histories of Europe and America since the end of World War II, Kagan makes clear how for one the need to escape a bloody past has led to a new set of transnational beliefs about power and threat, while the other has perforce evolved into the guarantor of that "postmodern paradise" by dint of its might and global reach.

El lector tiene en sus manosá los capítulos centrales delá grueso volumen Peligros Presentes, autentica "ábibliaá" para los intelectuales y políticos neoconservadores que sostienen al Gobierno Bush. La revolucion neoconservadora basa su discurso en una elaborada linea de pensamiento y en un discurso ideologico que ha sido capaz de volver a triunfar en las pasadas elecciones USA y que tiene una enorme influencia en el mundo entero. a El lector podra conocer de primera mano las lineas programaticas que inspiraran al segundo mandato republicano. Comprendera la logica que lo inspira y podra anticipar los acontecimientos que se avecinan, dado que lo escriben los principales representantes del pensamiento neoconservador estadounidense. Figurasa clave comoa Paul Wolfowitz (numero dos de la jerarquia del Pentagono) William Bennett (antiguo ministro de Educacion de Estados Unidos) William Kristol (editor del enormemente influyente Weekly Standard), Robert Kagan (autor del best-seller Fuerza y debilidad) y James Ceaser (reputado academico estadounidense) desgranan las claves del pensamiento y de la estrategia que cimienta al nuevo orden politico internacional americano: sagrada mision de Estados Unidos en su lucha contra el eje del mal, unilateralismo en las relaciones internacionales,

Tras años de mutuo resentimiento y tensiones, hoy está claro que los intereses de Europa y Estados Unidos divergen cada vez más, y que la relación transatlántica ha cambiado notablemente, posiblemente de forma irreversible. Europa cree que Estados Unidos es una potencia arbitraria, unilateral e innecesariamente beligerante; Estados Unidos piensa que Europa es un continente cansado, poco riguroso y debil. La indignacion y la desconfianza por ambas parte esta desembocando en una incomprension total. Este libro provocador ofrece un analisis unico, fundamental para comprende el presente y el futuro de la relacion entre Europa y Estados Unidos.

From a leading scholar of this country's foreign policy comes the brilliant essay about America and the world that has caused a storm in international circles--now expanded into book form.

The transformation of the US into an autocracy has advanced...Nobody has outlined this danger more compellingly than Robert Kagan. - Martin Wolf, Financial TimesA chilling and clear-eyed warning about the threats to our democracy posed by the increasing radicalization of the Republican Party, from a leading historian and intellectualThe 2024 election could be the last free election held in a unified America. So warns Robert Kagan in this brilliant and terrifying analysis of the perilous state of democracy in the United States today. If Donald Trump loses the upcoming election, as he did in 2020, but refuses to accept the result, as he also did in the last election, he is likely to call on his millions of followers to repudiate the election results. It will be a short step from there to Republican-dominated states rejecting the legitimacy of the federal government and effectively seceding. The United States at that point will cease to be united, with grave consequences for both Americans and the world.In Rebellion, Kagan dives deeper than the op-eds and think pieces to explore the historical forces that have brought us to this momentin particular the long history of opposition to liberalism, and to government, that has shaped Americas character from the time of the Revolution to today. Trumps unique capacity to tap into that tradition of dissent and circumvent the American system has brought us to the edge of dissolutionnot for the first time in our history but possibly the last. This is an elegant and deeply informed synthesis of history, contemporary politics, and ideas that sheds light on this crucial moment.

AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A comprehensive, sweeping history of Americas rise to global superpowerfrom the Spanish-American War to World War IIby the acclaimed author of Dangerous NationWith extraordinary range and research, Robert Kagan has illuminated Americas quest to reconcile its new power with its historical purpose in world order in the early twentieth century. Dr. Henry KissingerAt the dawn of the twentieth century, the United States was one of the worlds richest, most populous, most technologically advanced nations. It was also a nation divided along numerous fault lines, with conflicting aspirations and concerns pulling it in different directions. And it was a nation unsure about the role it wanted to play in the world, if any. Americans were the beneficiaries of a global order they had no responsibility for maintaining. Many preferred to avoid being drawn into what seemed an ever more competitive, conflictual, and militarized international environment. However, many also were eager to see the United States taking a share of international responsibility, working with others to preserve peace and advance civilization. The story of American foreign policy in the first four decades of the twentieth century is about the effort to do bothto adjust the nation to its new position without sacrificing the principles developed in the past, as one contemporary put it.This would prove a difficult task. The collapse of British naval power, combined with the rise of Germany and Japan, suddenly placed the United States in a pivotal position. American military power helped defeat Germany in the First World War, and the peace that followed was significantly shaped by a U.S. president. But Americans recoiled from their deep involvement in world affairs, and for the next two decades, they sat by as fascism and tyranny spread unchecked, ultimately causing the liberal world order to fall apart. Americas resulting intervention in the Second World War marked the beginning of a new era, for the United States and for the world.Brilliant and insightful, The Ghost at the Feast shows both the perils of American withdrawal from the world and the price of international responsibility.

What would the world look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times best-selling author and one of the countrys most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane. Although Kagan asserts that much of the current pessimism is misplaced, he warns that if America were indeed to commit preemptive superpower suicide, the world would see the return of war among rising nations as they jostle for power; the retreat of democracy around the world as Vladimir Putins Russia and authoritarian China acquire more clout; and the weakening of the global free-market economy, which the United States created and has supported for more than sixty years. Weve seen this beforein the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I. Potent, incisive, and engaging, The World America Made is a reminder that the American world order is worth preserving, and America dare not decline.

Most Americans believe the United States had been an isolationist power until the twentieth century. This is wrong. In a riveting and brilliantly revisionist work of history, Robert Kagan, bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power, shows how Americans have in fact steadily been increasing their global power and influence from the beginning. Driven by commercial, territorial, and idealistic ambitions, the United States has always perceived itself, and been seen by other nations, as an international force. This is a book of great importance to our understanding of our nations history and its role in the global community.

"An incisive, elegantly written, new book about Americas unique role in the world." --Tom Friedman, The New York TimesA brilliant and visionary argument for Americas role as an enforcer of peace and order throughout the world--and what is likely to happen if we withdraw and focus our attention inward.Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse. Kagan makes clear how the "realist" impulse to recognize our limitations and focus on our failures misunderstands the essential role America has played for decades in keeping the worlds worst instability in check. A true realism, he argues, is based on the understanding that the historical norm has always been toward chaos--that the jungle will grow back, if we let it.

Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. The world remains unipolar, but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict, and a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics.For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them.

From Robert Kagan, a leading scholar of American foreign policy, comes an insightful analysis of the state of European and American foreign relations. At a time when relations between the United States and Europe are at their lowest ebb since World War II, this brief but cogent book is essential reading. Kagan forces both sides to see themselves through the eyes of the other. Europe, he argues, has moved beyond power into a self-contained world of laws, rules, and negotiation, while America operates in a Hobbesian world where rules and laws are unreliable and military force is often necessary. Tracing how this state of affairs came into being over the past fifty years and fearlessly exploring its ramifications for the future, Kagan reveals the shape of the new transatlantic relationship. The result is a book that promises to be as enduringly influential as Samuel Huntingtons The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.