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Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror
 
 

Containment: Rebuilding a Strategy against Global Terror [Kindle Edition]

Ian Shapiro
3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Review

Had President Bush adopted Shapiro's approach on Sept. 12, 2001, it is quite likely that he would have had more success in marginalizing adversaries. -- Samantha Power, New York Times Book Review

The Bush administration's post-9/11 national security strategy has come in for tremendous criticism, but opponents have had difficulty articulating a coherent alternative. Here is one. Shapiro . . . offers a brilliant sketch of a new strategic vision that draws on Cold War-era containment ideas. -- G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs

It's to be hoped that Shapiro is not done--his ideas here deserve extended discussion. And as the post-Bush world starts to take form, there will be a continued need for creative thinking and the rediscovery of intellectual resources we have unwisely abandoned. -- Aziz Huq, American Prospect

Shapiro makes a convincing case that so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran can be deterred and contained even if they develop nuclear weapons. -- Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Chronicle of Higher Education

Americans who want more than garage logic and uninformed rhetoric should read [this] book. Bush administration officials should read [this] book. -- Roger Buoen, Minneapolis Star Tribune

Containment is both a forceful critique of current foreign policy and a prescriptive response to it. . . . Shapiro offers a series of complicated and detailed strategies to confront global terror, including greater investment in human intelligence to methodically track and stop weapons proliferation, and to his credit, he avoids oversimplification and instead offers thorough analyses of individual situations. . . . If only such a clear and thorough analysis existed before the last election. -- Joshua J. Kearney, The Harvard Crimson

The effects of the Iraq war upon the discussion of American foreign policy have come in waves. The first wave was all about competence...Now the second wave of the discussion is under way, and its subject is not competence but ideology...Ian Shapiro's book is an important document of this second wave...Shapiro argues that the only strategy that makes sense in the aftermath of Iraq is the old strategy of containment, which he believes is firmly grounded in American history and American values. The only correct retort to Bushism is Kennanism.... Containment, Shapiro contends, is our fallback, and obviously a wiser course. -- James P. Rubin, The New Republic

This book is seductive in its belief that the university as endeavour can contribute to a better world. It is written with sensitivity, with reason and with the intelligent, well rounded insights of a liberal educator of great experience. The book asserts everything that I believe in. -- Pamela Taylor, Educational Review

Shapiro's overall case is compelling. . . . [A]mong the growing number of critiques of the Bush strategy, his is the most comprehensive and, arguably, the most convincing. -- Lieutenant General William E Odom, Cambridge Review of International Affairs

Shapiro's style is more confrontational than contained but that is to be welcomed in this short work containing some pointed observations. -- Bill Durodie, International Affairs

Review

Had President Bush adopted Shapiro's approach on Sept. 12, 2001, it is quite likely that he would have had more success in marginalizing adversaries. -- Samantha Power, New York Times Book Review The Bush administration's post-9/11 national security strategy has come in for tremendous criticism, but opponents have had difficulty articulating a coherent alternative. Here is one. Shapiro ... offers a brilliant sketch of a new strategic vision that draws on Cold War-era containment ideas. -- G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs It's to be hoped that Shapiro is not done--his ideas here deserve extended discussion. And as the post-Bush world starts to take form, there will be a continued need for creative thinking and the rediscovery of intellectual resources we have unwisely abandoned. -- Aziz Huq, American Prospect Shapiro makes a convincing case that so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran can be deterred and contained even if they develop nuclear weapons. -- Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Chronicle of Higher Education Americans who want more than garage logic and uninformed rhetoric should read [this] book. Bush administration officials should read [this] book. -- Roger Buoen, Minneapolis Star Tribune Containment is both a forceful critique of current foreign policy and a prescriptive response to it... Shapiro offers a series of complicated and detailed strategies to confront global terror, including greater investment in human intelligence to methodically track and stop weapons proliferation, and to his credit, he avoids oversimplification and instead offers thorough analyses of individual situations... If only such a clear and thorough analysis existed before the last election. -- Joshua J. Kearney, The Harvard Crimson The effects of the Iraq war upon the discussion of American foreign policy have come in waves. The first wave was all about competence...Now the second wave of the discussion is under way, and its subject is not competence but ideology...Ian Shapiro's book is an important document of this second wave...Shapiro argues that the only strategy that makes sense in the aftermath of Iraq is the old strategy of containment, which he believes is firmly grounded in American history and American values. The only correct retort to Bushism is Kennanism... Containment, Shapiro contends, is our fallback, and obviously a wiser course. -- James P. Rubin, The New Republic This book is seductive in its belief that the university as endeavour can contribute to a better world. It is written with sensitivity, with reason and with the intelligent, well rounded insights of a liberal educator of great experience. The book asserts everything that I believe in. -- Pamela Taylor, Educational Review Shapiro's overall case is compelling... [A]mong the growing number of critiques of the Bush strategy, his is the most comprehensive and, arguably, the most convincing. -- Lieutenant General William E Odom, Cambridge Review of International Affairs Shapiro's style is more confrontational than contained but that is to be welcomed in this short work containing some pointed observations. -- Bill Durodie, International Affairs

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1405 KB
  • Print Length: 209 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0691137072
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press (28 Jan 2008)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B002WJM6N6
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #344,178 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I just wanted to point out the fact that John Lewis Gaddis, one of the world's leading Cold War scholars and an expert on containment, is a huge advocate of the Bush Doctrine. I believe, given the content of the synopsis above, it is worth mentioning that, in spite of all that is said by both Bush-lovers and haters, the current international structure differs greatly from that of the Cold War.

I would still be interested to read Shapiro's book though.
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Amazon.com:  3 reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Viable Alternative 5 Mar 2007
By Karen Schmidt - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
Shapiro presents a rational, concise, and morally consistent alternative to Bush's foreign doctrine of aggression and the Democrat's barren response. Supported by illustrations of former foreign policy successes and blunders, his proposal to rekindle the Cold War strategy of containment to fit a post 9-11 environment is apt and well worth consideration. Moreover, his prose, sprinkled with wit and metaphors ("Triangulation's centrol flaw is that it is good tactics but bad strategy. In the short run it can deliver as promised, but as soon as your opponent realizes what you are doing, politics becomes about shifting the goalposts."), turns what could be a dry subject into an engaging read.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Where is the second half of the book?... 19 Jan 2008
By Michael Magoon - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I was very disappointed by this book. When I saw the cover, I thought that this would lay out an reasonable alternative to our present foreign policy based upon the containment policies of the Cold War. I became even more excited when the introduction promised just that. When I was finished with the book, though, I felt like I had read Part 1, and someone had torn our Part 2 from the end of the book. A huge let down.

Shapiro rightly blames Democrats for not coming up with a well-thought-out foreign policy alternative to the Bush administration. He says that "you cannot fight something with nothing." But unfortunately Shapiro's "something" consists of little more than a bulleted list on the first page of the final chapter.

In fairness to Shapiro, he does offer a very well reasoned argument for why the Bush administration's foreign policy is misguided on a very fundamental level. And he does often show how the general theory of containment would oppose these policies, but he never shows what concrete Containment-based policies he would recommend.

Most maddingly, he never even defines what we are supposed to be containing. There is obviously no clear country (like the USSR) to contain. He say that we are not fighting against Terrorism, because terrorism will always exist and many terrorist groups are not attacking the USA. True, but he also criticizes those who want to fight against radical Islamists, saying they are provoking a "war of civilizations" against Islam. So who exactly are we containing?

Shapiro criticizes our cooperation with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan because they are authoritarian, even though our Cold War containment policies worked with many authoritarian regimes. It is difficult for me to believe that we can have any kind of containment policy in the Middle East without at least some cooperation with authoritarian regimes. So how do we decide who is our friend and who is our enemy? Shapiro offers little.

Some day someone will develop a true Containment policy against the Global Jihadist Insurgency based upon the successful policies of the Cold War but updated to a different region, different time and different enemy. That would be an interesting book! Unfortunately, Shapiro decided not to write that book.
6 of 14 people found the following review helpful
very disappointing 31 July 2007
By Scott Tessier - Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
I was very disappointed with this book and would have given it one star were i not such a big fan of the containment doctrine. I wanted to give this book 5 starts, but unfortunately it falls very short. The shame here is that Shapiro has a fantastic thesis; applying the doctrine of containment to fight terrorism is a wonderful idea. Unfortunately, he does a terrible job of developing his thesis. And terrible is being complementary. This book is so poorly focused it is laughable. And its only 131 pages! My graduate thesis was longer. It is hard to be so poorly focused in such a short book. He probably really only has about fifty pages of real content in this book. Shapiro repeatedly drifts into tangents on Iraq, and while I agree Iraq is an unfortunate situation, he fails to make this really relevant and it makes the book smack of politicization and detracts from the few, dispersed good points he makes. The book is a quintessential definition of what can be wrong with academia. He develops a thesis, applies absolutely no sort of structured analysis to it whatsoever, and fails to explain how to actually go about implementing this policy. He never explains how he would actually go about implementing this. If he were to walk into to the NSC with this material he would get laughed out of the room because he makes no effort to bridge theory and practice. His lack of structured analysis is really frightening for someone who teaches at Yale. He makes some really dubious analytic leaps, has tremendous logic gaps throughout the book, and supports his theories with rants and claims, not evidence. In summary, great concept, poorly executed.
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