In Republic in Peril, David C. Hendrickson advances a powerful critique of American policy since the end of the Cold War. America's outsized military spending and global commitments, he shows, undermine rather than uphold international order. They raise rather than reduce the danger of war, imperiling both American security and domestic liberty. An alternative path lies in a new internationalism in tune with the United Nations Charter and the philosophy of republican liberty embraced by America's founders. The sum of the conventional view-touted by the national security establishment and embraced by Hillary Clinton and George W. Bush-is that it is impossible to have a liberal world order unless America has hostile relations with Russia, China, and Iran, together with a shifting cast of lesser states. Donald Trump, iconoclastic is so many ways, promises to bring the militarization of U.S. foreign policy to an entirely new level. But it is precisely those who would lead us into battle with "hostile states" who threaten a liberal world order, because they look to a competition that is to be settled through dominance rather than reciprocity. Formed by ideology, greatly fortified by special interests, the U.S. posture has put it into standing collision with other great powers. The flaws of the U.S.-led world order-a chronic overreliance on force, habitual violations of the rules governing intervention-should not be attributed to liberalism but to a flock of "neo-isms" parading in its name. In searching for a remedy, we must find it by rediscovering, not repudiating, the liberal tradition. Hendrickson offers a panoramic view of America's choices in foreign policy, analyzing the vested interests and ideologies that have justified a sprawling global empire over the last 25 years. Hendrickson recovers the tradition of liberal pluralism, one that sees in nonintervention, the balance of power, and great power concert the formula for a durable peace. Rather than claiming a superior role as judge, jury, and executioner, the United States must share power in accordance with the Golden Rule. It needs restraint rather than braggadocio, acceptance of its role as a nation among the nations rather than arrogant pretensions regarding its exceptional virtue and superior wisdom. Ranging widely, from the classics of American political thought and international theory to the bewildering thicket of hot wars and regional feuds across the globe that embroil America, Hendrickson forcefully shows that the militarization of U.S. foreign policy is deeply at odds with the animating purposes and principles of the American experiment.

Auteur

David C. Hendrickson is Professor of Political Science at Colorado College and the author of eight books, including Peace Pact: The Lost World of the American Founding.

Contenu

Preface Introduction Obama Legacy and Trump Prospect America, Liberalism, and Empire Plan of the Work Chapter One Liberal Hegemony Officialdom Rule Maker, Rule Breaker Friends and Enemies, Protector and Protected The Neoliberal Economic Order on the Ropes Who-Whom? Chapter Two Universal Empire and Westphalian Ruins Toward Universal Empire Rome and America Revolution, Intervention, and the Law of Nations The American Synthesis Pluralism and Liberal Internationalism Realism, Liberalism, and the Legal Order The Golden Rule Chapter Three Public Bads in the Illiberal World Order Freedom of Navigation and East Asia The Greater Good in the Greater Middle East Surveillance State, Sanctioning State, and the New Praetorian Elite The Open Door and Its Enemies Recovering Liberalism Chapter Four Taps for Republican Liberty Internationalism's Broken Promises Sacralizing Militarism The Security Theory of Republican Liberalism The Old Testament and Its Rivals Chapter Five The Renovation of American Foreign Policy Isolationism and Globalism A New Internationalism Return of the Lippmann Gap The Nixon Precedent Toward a New Détente Reconstituting the European Alliance East Asian Retrenchment Concert versus Dominance Heart of Darkness Blood and Oil Israel and the Thrasybulus Syndrome Conclusion Acknowledgments Select Bibliography