“Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power“ by Fred Kaplan (Wiley, 2008).
I just finished reading this book last night and posted a review to my weRead app on Facebook; here’s a copy of what I had to say:
(4.5 out of 5)
An excellent examination of the foreign policy ideas that drove the Bush administration into the Iraq quagmire.
What I found most valuable in this book is that Kaplan distinguishes the different viewpoints that existed – pre-9/11 vs post-9/11 Bush; Rumsfeld and Cheney’s belief that displays of America’s military might would prompt a wave of democratic reform; the more “pure” neoconservatism of Wolfowitz and co.; Powell’s multilateralism and Rice’s evolving philosophy.
Yet at the same time, Kaplan argues – convincingly – that a flawed notion unified and motivated this group of people to move largely in the same direction. That notion was that in the post Cold War world, the United States had the capacity to use its power to impose change for the better; that they could do so anywhere and everywhere, and that the more they did so, the easier the task would become.
Kaplan concludes by evaluating the implications of this failed approach for the prospect of future interventions that could achieve genuine humanitarian good. In the context of the current crises in Gaza, Congo, etc. (not to mention Afghanistan and Iraq), and with the Obama administration about to take the reins, the issues he raises are of vital importance.
Interesting.
In the biography I read about Dick Cheney recently (Vice -Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency – by Lou Dubose and Jake Bernstein), it was suggested that Cheney’s obsession with invading Iraq stemmed from almost a psychological need to have an “enemy” after the collapse of the Soviet Union. When the Wall fell, he had nothing to “hate”.
And hence he went on the path to American involvement in the Middle East and helped create a monster, to have something to be scared of once again.
It’s an interesting theory and a well-researched (considering the secrecy surrounding – and perpetrated by – Dick Cheney) and well-written book.