Book contents
1 - The American Future
Problems of Primacy, Policy, and Purpose
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Summary
“[T]he United States cannot afford another decline like that which has characterized the past decade and a half.…[O]nly self-delusion can keep us from admitting our decline to ourselves.”
– Henry A. Kissinger, 1961In these words, one of America's most distinguished strategic thinkers and policy makers expresses alarm at America's condition and the perils it faces. The warning seems timely, yet it was written more than half a century ago as an assessment of the Soviet threat, problems with allies and the developing world, and in frustration with what the author saw as dangerously inadequate policy and strategic choices. Henry Kissinger was by no means alone. He cited George Kennan's lament about our domestic failings with race, the cities, the education and environment of our young people, and the gap between expert knowledge and popular understanding, even while criticizing Kennan's focus on those problems to the exclusion of military and diplomatic threats.
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- Information
- Power and Willpower in the American FutureWhy the United States Is Not Destined to Decline, pp. 7 - 29Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012