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In Search of Monsters to Destroy: The Folly of American Empire and the Paths to Peace
by Coyne, Christopher J.
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Overview
Overview
The attempt by the United States since 9/11 to establish liberal political regimes in the Middle East and in the mountains of Afghanistan was doomed to fail--and for one simple reason.
Imperialism and militarism build empires, not liberalism.
And if we do not absorb this truth, the rest of the twenty-first century will be a repeat of its bloodstained beginning.
So says Christopher Coyne, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and professor of economics at George Mason University, in this eye-opening, must-read book on America's recent foreign policy failures.
Since the 19th century, the US government has used its immense power to promote liberal values and create a global liberal empire to "protect" them.
President Woodrow Wilson's phrase, "The world must be made safe for democracy," justifying American entry into World War I, is a classic illustration of liberal imperialism.
And many have argued, then and now, that such crusading has been a good thing.
But an international liberal order, created and supported by an American military "in search of monsters to destroy," is, says Coyne, an absurdity.
And the logic is simple.
Illiberal means, such as:
industrial-scale violence managed by remote Western elites in their War on Terror their traducing of international norms in the process and their partnerships with brutal, oppressive regimes to accomplish their goals can lead only to illiberal ends.What else are the hundreds of thousands of dead and mutilated civilians the US left behind in these regions? The destroyed ancient cultures and nearly obliterated nation-states?
Coyne also points out that the illiberal perpetrators also can end up nearly bankrupt and humiliated in the process.
And for what?
Does anybody think now that the world is a safer, more stable, more prosperous place thanks America's intervention in the Near East?
Yet it is not as if the historical record wasn't clear that imperialist crime doesn't pay. So why, Coyne asks, did we in the United States think our monster hunting would end otherwise--and what do we do now?
Coyne has answers.
A vocal champion of global engagement, Coyne insists there are workable, proven alternatives, deeply rooted in human experience, to imperialism, militarism, and empire--ones that preserve freedom, promote security, and foster mutually enriching friendship among the nations of the earth:
The movement of goods and services of all kinds across all borders cultural exchanges peaceful negotiation among peoples and a polycentric approach to the defense of the homelandThese are the things, according to Coyne, that foster the lasting security and prosperity essential to human flourishing.
Read In Search of Monsters to Destroy, and you'll never look at the nation state or international relations the same again.
- Format: Hardcover
- Author: Coyne, Christopher J.
- ISBN: 9781598133479
- Condition: Used
- Number Of Pages: 248
- Publication Year: 2022
Language:
English