The Choice: Global Domination Or Global Leadership

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Basic Books, Jan 3, 2005 - History - 242 pages
American power and a pervasive globalization are the central realities of today's world, and the source of its thorniest dilemmas. Yet while America's unprecedented might should be the source of global security, Americans today feel less secure than ever. Globalization promotes American dominance even as it breeds anti-American resentment. In The Choice, former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski addresses the historic choice facing America at this very moment: Will it strive to dominate the world, or lead it? Reminding us that American dominance should not be confused with omnipotence, Brzezinski shows how America's well-being and the world's are entwined, and that America must find a way to be both guarantor of global security and promoter of the global common good."When it comes to what might be called the 'philosophy' of foreign policy-the relationship of U.S. power and policy to broader historical and cultural trends-no statesman of Brzezinski's generation is in his league.... A tour d'horizon of U.S. foreign policy [that] discusses the inevitable contradictions and tensions that enmesh a democratic society that is also a global hegemon, criticizes the Bush administration, and articulates his own vision of the way forward-all in a little over 200 pages. Even those who do not accept Brzezinski's critique of the Bush administration will admire the sagacity of his views; for Democrats attempting to assemble a serious and thoughtful alternative to Bush's foreign policy, The Choice is indispensable."-Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs
 

Contents

American Hegemony and Global Security
1
The Dilemmas of National Insecurity
7
The Dilemmas of the New Global Disorder
41
The Dilemmas of Alliance Management
85
American Hegemony and the Common Good
131
The Dilemmas of Globalization
139
Domination or Leadership
213
Acknowledgments
231
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Zbigniew Kazimierz Brzezinski was born in Warsaw, Poland on March 28, 1928. He received a bachelor's degree in 1949 and a master's degree in 1950 from McGill University in Montreal and a doctorate in political science in 1953 from Harvard University. He was the national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter during the years of the Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s. He wrote numerous books during his lifetime including Ideology and Power in Soviet Politics, Power and Principle, Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower, and Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power. He was also a professor of foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, a scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a frequent expert commentator on PBS and ABC News. He died on May 26, 2017 at the age of 89.

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