Edited by Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffrey W. Legro
U.S. national security policy is at a critically important crossroads. The Bush Doctrine of unilateralism, pre-emptive war, and the imposition of democracy by force has proven disastrous. The United States now finds itself vilified abroad, weakened at home, and bogged down in a seemingly endless
and unwinnable war.
In To Lead the World, Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffery W. Legro bring together eleven of America's most esteemed writers and thinkers to offer concrete, historically grounded suggestions for how America can regain its standing in the world and use its power more wisely than
it has during the Bush years. Best-selling authors such as David Kennedy, Niall Ferguson, Robert Kagan, Francis Fukuyama, and Samantha Power address such issues as how the US can regain its respect in the world, respond to the biggest threats now facing the country, identify reasonable foreign
policy goals, manage the growing debt burden, achieve greater national security, and successfully engage a host of other problems left unsolved and in many cases exacerbated by the Bush Doctrine. Representing a wide range of perspectives, the writers gathered here place the current foreign-policy
predicament firmly in the larger context of American and world history and draw upon realistic appraisals of both the strengths and the limits of American power. They argue persuasively that the kind of leadership that made the United States a great--and greatly admired--nation in the past can be
revitalized to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Written by prize-winning authors and filled with level-headed, far-sighted, and achievable recommendations, To Lead the World will serve as a primary source of political wisdom in the post-Bush era and will add immeasurably to the
policy debates surrounding the 2008 presidential election.
Acknowledgements
Contributors
Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffrey W. Legro: Introduction
1. Stephen Van Evera: American Grand Strategy for the New Era
2. Robert Kagan: End of Dreams, Return of History
3. Charles S. Maier: Beyond Statecraft: American Foreign Policy and Global Social
Transformation
4. G. John Ikenberry: Grand Strategy as Liberal Order Building
5. James Kurth: An American Strategy for Global Law and Order
6. Samantha Power: U.S. Foreign Policy after Bush
7. David M. Kennedy: Two Concepts of Sovereignty
8. Barry Eichengreen and Douglas A.
Irwin: The Bush Legacy for America's International Economic Policy
9. Francis Fukuyama: American Foreign Policy After the Bush Administration
10. Niall Ferguson: The Problem of Conjecture: American Strategy after the Bush Doctrine
11. Melvyn P. Leffler and Jeffrey W. Legro: Dilemmas of
Strategy
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Melvyn P. Leffler is Edward Stettinius Professor of American History at the University of Virginia. He is the author of many books on the Cold War, U.S. national security policy, and American foreign relations, including A Preponderance of Power and For the Soul of Mankind.
Jeffrey W. Legro is Compton Professor of World Politics and Chair, Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. A specialist on international relations, Legro is the author of Cooperation under Fire and Rethinking the World. He has served as a consultant to foundations, think tanks, and
government agencies.
