After the Apocalypse, Andrew Bacevich
After the Apocalypse, Andrew Bacevich
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After the Apocalypse
America's Role in a World Transformed

Author: Andrew Bacevich

Narrator: Peter Coyote

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/08/2021


Synopsis

A bold and urgent perspective on how American foreign policy must change in response to the shifting world order of the twenty-first century, from Andrew J. Bacevich, the New York Times bestselling author of The Limits of Power and The Age of Illusions.

The purpose of U.S. foreign policy has, at least theoretically, been to keep Americans safe. Yet as we confront a radically changed world, it has become indisputably clear that the terms of that policy have failed. Washington’s insistence that a market economy is compatible with the common good, its faith in the idea of the “West” and its “special relationships,” its conviction that global military primacy is the key to a stable and sustainable world order—these have brought endless wars and a succession of moral and material disasters.

In a bold reconception of America’s place in the world, informed by thinking from across the political spectrum, Andrew J. Bacevich—founder and president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a bipartisan Washington think tank dedicated to foreign policy—lays down a new approach—one that is based on moral pragmatism, mutual coexistence, and war as a last resort. Confronting the threats of the future—accelerating climate change, a shift in the international balance of power, and the ascendance of information technology over brute weapons of war—his vision calls for nothing less than a profound overhaul of our understanding of national security.

Crucial and provocative, After the Apocalypse sets out new principles to guide the once-but-no-longer sole superpower as it navigates a transformed world.

A Macmillan Audio production from Metropolitan Books

About Andrew Bacevich

Andrew Bacevich grew up in Indiana, graduated from West Point and Princeton, served in the army, became a university historian, and currently serves as the president and founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a nonpartisan foreign policy think tank. He is the author, coauthor, or editor of a dozen books, among them The Limits of Power, Washington Rules, Age of Illusions, and, most recently, After the Apocalypse: America’s Role in a World Transformed.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Joseph on June 09, 2021

Disclaimer- I was contacted by Henry Holt offering a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My views are in no way endorsed or countenanced by Henry Holt or its parent company, Macmillan.-Now that I've got that out of the way...here's my take on this book. This book should be essen......more

Goodreads review by Graeme on January 01, 2022

Unfortunately, I could not move past the condescension that permeates this book. It starts out with the oversimplified attitude that “everyone is an idiot.” The author makes some interesting arguments for possible solutions, but a lot of them struck me as utopian. No question, the system is broken, b......more

Goodreads review by Ram on December 06, 2021

This book is a blistering critique of U.S. foreign policy since WW2. The entire book is dispassionately (and persuasively) written but the author’s thinly concealed fury at the self-serving, ineffective and inefficient policy establishment is evident. The first inclination among warmongers and defen......more

Goodreads review by Bob on November 01, 2021

Summary: An argument that 2020 represented the final unraveling of the United States’ post-Cold War superpower status and that U.S. policy must change, reflecting its changed status in the world and changing priorities at home. If ever a year might be considered apocalyptic, 2020 is one for the books......more

Goodreads review by Larry on April 12, 2023

This 2021 audible book is one of the most recent addition of Andrew Bacevich to his amazing and challenging series of books, which I have been eagerly absorbing for a number of years now. Bacevich is one year younger than me and I am 76. I think he has more brain power on this topic and more experie......more


Quotes

"A timely, angry, deeply necessary book about the habits of mind that have damaged America, and how to change them."
—Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism

"In a sane country, the estimable Andrew Bacevich would be Secretary of a much-shrunken Defense Department. Deepened by his sense of history, this up-to-the-minute book is his answer to the big question: why is the most powerful nation on earth so ill-prepared to deal with the world it faces?"
—Adam Hochschild, author of Spain in Our Hearts

"The proliferating crises of our moment have found their interpreter. In this piercing account, Andrew Bacevich explains how distinctively American attributes—from our national security state to our original sin of racism to our very self-concept as the world leader—have, in the 21st century, conspired to render the American people vulnerable where they live. Bacevich points the way forward in terms that Americans across party lines are likely to appreciate. Will their leaders?"
—Stephen Wertheim, author of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy

"An excoriating call for change . . . Bacevich's arguments are well-informed and stoked by a sense of moral outrage. Readers will agree that U.S. foreign policy needs a massive rethink."
Publishers Weekly

"With a reputation for knowledgeable, incisive, and provocative readings of history, Bacevich delivers his latest addition to a growing body of thought-provoking work . . . Broad in its scope yet concise, this is an important nonconformist interpretation of American history."
Kirkus Reviews