Professor/blogger Dan Drezner wrote this commentary on new strategy books for the Washington Post. I’ve ordered the Michael Mandelbaum book. If you are planning to read some of these read on. Here’s his view on necessary ingredients:
In this climate, policy heavyweights from Washington to New York to Boston are grasping for the Next Big Idea, the grand strategy that will guide U.S. foreign policy in a post-Iraq world and earn its creator fame and, if not fortune, perhaps a spot on the next administration’s foreign-policy team. So who will be the next George Kennan? The current strategies on offer in various books and articles include new buzzwords, promising ideas — and miles to go before a consensus emerges.
Mere dissatisfaction with today’s foreign policy doesn’t guarantee that a new vision will take its place. As Jeffrey Legro, a political scientist at the University of Virginia, recently pointed out in his book “Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order,” a lot is required for a real shift in worldviews. A new strategy must be more than visionary; it must provide attractive and practical solutions to current challenges. During the Cold War, containment’s appeal was that it offered a coherent vision for how to deal with the Soviet Union, as well as concrete policy steps that flowed from that vision.
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