The World America Made, Robert Kagan
The World America Made, Robert Kagan
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The World America Made

Author: Robert Kagan

Narrator: Robertson Dean

Unabridged: 4 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/07/2012

Synopsis

What would the world look like if America were to reduce its role as a global leader in order to focus all its energies on solving its problems at home? And is America really in decline? Robert Kagan, New York Times best-selling author and one of the country’s most influential strategic thinkers, paints a vivid, alarming picture of what the world might look like if the United States were truly to let its influence wane.
 
Although Kagan asserts that much of the current pessimism is misplaced, he warns that if America were indeed to commit “preemptive superpower suicide,” the world would see the return of war among rising nations as they jostle for power; the retreat of democracy around the world as Vladimir Putin’s Russia and authoritarian China acquire more clout; and the weakening of the global free-market economy, which the United States created and has supported for more than sixty years. We’ve seen this before—in the breakdown of the Roman Empire and the collapse of the European order in World War I.
 
Potent, incisive, and engaging, The World America Made is a reminder that the American world order is worth preserving, and America dare not decline.

About The Author

Robert Kagan is senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a columnist for The Washington Post. He is also the author of The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Dangerous Nation, Of Paradise and Power, and A Twilight Struggle. Kagan served in the U.S. State Department from 1984 to 1988. He lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Dave on December 22, 2012

Having read in 1988 Paul Kennedy's "The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers," whose front cover featured an American flag about to fall off a precipice, I was fascinated to see Kagan's title 15 years after Kennedy's book was published. In '87, when Kennedy hit the shelves, the ascendency of Japan to t......more

Goodreads review by Kathryn on June 29, 2012

This book was pretty good, but it was a cursory treatment of its subject. The author's premise is that the Pax Americana of the past 65 years benefits most of the people in the world and that most of the world would be worse off if the United States decides that we should withdraw from our role as l......more

Goodreads review by Paul on December 05, 2014

Kagan offers a solid, concise statement in this little pamphlet of why the liberal world order depends on American power and why it is worth defending. I broadly agree with his interpretation of world politics, which is a blend of conservative realism and democratic idealism. Here's his argument in a......more

Goodreads review by Kuszma on October 29, 2019

Mindig meglepődöm azon, mennyire szeretek jól felépített érvrendszereket tanulmányozni még akkor is, ha olyan dolgok mellett teszik le a garast, amiktől nekem felszalad a szemöldököm a fejbúbomig, de úgy, hogy bicskával kell visszafeszegetnem a helyére. Kagan tulajdonképpen Huntington elméletét visz......more

Quotes

"The book makes the case that the nation’s decline is a myth, a reaction to the financial crisis of 2008 rather than to any genuine geopolitical shifts." —The New York Times
 
"These ideas struck a chord with a President accused of leading a great American retreat."
—Michael Crowley, Time
 
"Kagan paints with a broad brush, sprinkling a memorable metaphor here, a striking simile there . . . He provides a compelling demonstration that whether it's protecting the sea lanes vital for free trade or nudging societies toward democracy, the world stands a better chance with America in prime position than with China or Russia in the lead." —The New York Times Book Review   

"[Marco] Rubio's foreign-policy views have evidently been recently shaped by a reading of Robert Kagan's The World America Made, a much-discussed refutation of the now-popular notion of American decline. As a Romney advisor who has penned bedside reading for President Barack Obama, Kagan could plausibly claim to be the most prominently cited writer in Washington right now." —Foreign Policy Magazine

"Intelligent, cogent, and timely." —Publishers Weekly

"At once a robust defence of the role America plays in world affairs and a determined rejection of the 'myth' that America is in decline." —Financial Times

"Serious, scholarly . . . [These are] ideas expressed clearly and consicely." —David Ignatius, Washington Post Writers Group  

"An extended and convincing argument against the thesis that there is anything inevitable about American decline." — Max Boot, Commentary 
 
"The foreign policy blueprint for the next Republican president." —Senator Marco Rubio
 
"Kagan grabs the reader’s attention from page one . . . He makes a powerful point: If America were to make a serious effort to disengage in world affairs, the world quickly would devolve into a much more scary and dangerous place . . . If you have time to read just one book, I suggest Kagan’s."  —Major General Perry Smith

"Magisterial . . . It's a small book, it's a great book."  —Bill Bennett
 
"Very important . . . A wonderful book."  —Hugh Hewitt
 
"A must-read."  —Lou Dobbs

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