What is the current state of the global security system, and where is it headed? What challenges and opportunities do we face, and what dangers are emerging? How will various regions of the world be affected? How can the United States best act to help shape the future while protecting its security, interests, and values? How can the United States deal with the threats of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction? An intellectual history of U.S. national security thinking since the end of the fall of the Soviet Union, Seeing the Elephant is an attempt to see the evolving international security system and America’s role in it through the eyes of more than fifty perceptive authors who have analyzed key aspects of the unfolding post–Cold War drama. Its premise is that, like the blind men in the Buddhist fable who each feels a different part of an elephant, these authors and their assessments, taken together, can give us a better view of where the world is headed.
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Writing primarily for students of US war colleges, the authors (both of the Center for Technology and National Security Policy at the National Defense U. in Washington, DC) chart the intellectual history of national security thinking since the end of the Cold War. They suggest that, like the fabled Buddhists feeling different parts of an elephant, surveying together the different concepts and schools of thought of books by the 50 American national security writers discussed can lead to a better understanding of the holistic picture of the United States and its role in international affairs. They have structured their analysis according to authors that offer a neo-Kantian view of growing democratization and economic prosperity, those that put forward a neo-Hobbesian perspective emphasizing stressful security affairs and frequent military solutions, those that emphasize the impact of technological developments in world affairs, and those that examine the evolution of American national security strategy in the contemporary world. Distributed in the US by Books International. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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