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The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy In Retreat (2013)

by Vali Nasr(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0385536488 (ISBN13: 9780385536486)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Anchor

review 1: A thoughtful rethink of US middle east policy,, explaining how the US missed the opportunity presented by the Arab Spring, missed the opportunity to form close bonds with Iran, missed the opportunity to build economic growth into Egypt, and are missing the opportunity of forming an economic growth policy with Saudia Arabia.Obama is effectively redoubling the strategy of George W. Bush in focusing his middle east strategy on counter terrorism rather than economic development, and Nasr explains how this will lead to even more US middle east involvement if Pakistan, Egypt, Iran and even Saudia Arabia are reduced to "failed" states.
review 2: The book is a useful review of the foreign politics in the Middle East, dispassionate enough to be quite honest. It goes ... morefrom Afghanistan to Pakistan, Iran, Syria and Turkey, and it even has a quick presentation of China positions, where the latest pivoting is intended. It is missing the elephant in the room, Israel, which few authors have the guts to handle the subject because it can permanently destroy any career in a blink of an eye.The merit of the book lays in its comprehensive presentation of all the divergent interests which conflict in the actual politics, some of them rarely, if never mentioned in the media; knowing all the factors, the reader can make his own judgments and understand the situation. In this, it is an essential book for everyone who has an elementary interest in foreign politics. The style is concise, to the object, easy to read, and except the rare author’s personal positions and interpretations of the facts, rather objective. The main thesis is that diplomacy has wrongly taken the back seat compared with the military solutions, always and in all occasions, and this has resulted in obvious failures. This failure of Bush and Obama administrations in reaching the goals of the national interests has made US less powerful and less influential that it should have been. I pass over the final chapter, a pleading for the eternal goodness of the US (omitting for e.g. the misery and enduring suffering of many South American countries where CIA has overturned popular governments to replace them with corrupt ones sold to the US corporations, the tendency to change governments all over the world if they do not perfectly fit the US interests, with no regard to consequences, etc.),letting the reader to judge by himself.The book is challenging the “pivot to Asia” (meaning leaving the Middle East and focusing on containing the rising power, China), on a flimsy geographical interpretation that Middle East is still Asia (East Asia), therefore is included in Asia, and moreover, on the more substantial argument that Israel (who is owning the Congress and all the main decision factors) will never allow US to abandon its interests in the region, being prepared to fight to the last American soldier.In conclusion, an enlightening good book, easy to read in two days, a rather rare honest and to the object analysis of the foreign policies in the Middle East. less

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