Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global AmbitionIn Sands of Empire, veteran political journalist and award-winning author Robert W. Merry examines the misguided concepts that have fueled American foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The emergence in the George W. Bush administration of America as Crusader State, bent on remaking the world in its preferred image, is dangerous and self-defeating, he points out. Moreover, these grand-scale flights of interventionism, regime change, and the use of pre-emptive armed force are without precedent in American history. Merry offers a spirited description of a powerful political core whose ideas have replaced conservative reservations about utopian visions -- these neocons who "embrace a brave new world in which American exceptionalism holds sway," imagining that others around the globe can be made to abandon their cultures in favor of our ideals. He traces the strains of Wilsonism that have now merged into an adventurous and hazardous foreign policy, particularly as described by William Kristol, Francis Fukuyama, Max Boot, and Paul Wolfowitz, among others. He examines the challenge of Samuel Huntington's supposition that the clash of civilizations defines present and future world conflict. And he rejects the notion of The New York Times's Thomas L. Friedman that America is not only the world's role model for globally integrated free-market capitalism, but that it has a responsibility to foster, support, and sustain globalization worldwide. From the first president Bush to Clinton to the second Bush presidency, the United States has compromised its global leadership, endangered its security, and failed to meet the standard of justified intervention, Merry suggests. The country must reset its global strategies to protect its interests and the West's, to maintain stability in strategic areas, and to fight radical threats, with arms if necessary. For anything less than these necessities, American blood should remain in American veins. |
Contents
3 | |
The Clash of Civilizations | 57 |
Isolation and Intervention | 74 |
THE ELUSIVE NEW ORDER | 95 |
The Triumph of Wilsonism | 97 |
Balkan Ghosts | 114 |
Balkan Tragedy | 130 |
AN ERA BORN IN BLOOD | 151 |
Conservative Interventionism | 218 |
Disavowing the Crusader State | 251 |
Notes | 255 |
277 | |
Acknowledgments | 287 |
291 | |
293 | |
294 | |
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Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards ... Robert W. Merry No preview available - 2010 |
Common terms and phrases
Albanian American Arab Balkan Balkan Ghosts Bosnia brutal Bush Bush’s called centuries challenge Cheney civilizational Clash of Civilizations Clinton Cold Cold War concept conservative interventionism country’s Croatia Croats culture decline democracy democratic diplomacy doctrine dominance economic embraced emerged empire End of History ethnic Europe force foreign policy Francis Fukuyama Friedman Fukuyama fundamental geopolitical global human nature humanitarian Huntington Idea of Progress ideals ideology imperial inevitable intellectual Iran Iraq Iraqi Irving Kristol Islam Kagan Kaplan Kissinger Kosovo Kristol later liberal interventionism Magian man’s mankind military moral Muslims NATO neoconservative Nisbet ongoing Oswald Spengler Ottoman outlook peace percent philosopher political post–Cold president Quoted in ibid Qutb Reagan reality region Robert Kagan Roosevelt Saddam Saddam Hussein Serbian Serbs society Somalia Soviet Spengler stability struggle thesis thinking Thomas Friedman threat throughout tion Toynbee troops vision Weekly Standard West West’s Western What’s Wilson Wolfowitz writes wrote York Yugoslavia
Popular passages
Page viii - I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command...
Page viii - Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!