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  1. Home
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  3. Power and Willpower in the American Future
  • Cited by 31
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
June 2014
Print publication year:
2012
Online ISBN:
9780511862588
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511862588
Subjects:
Diplomatic and International History, History, Politics and International Relations, International Relations and International Organisations
Information

Book description

To argue against the widely proclaimed idea of American decline might seem a lonely task. After all, the problems are real and serious. Yet if we take a longer view, much of the discourse about decline appears exaggerated, hyperbolic and ahistorical. Why? First, because of the deep underlying strengths of the United States. These include not only size, population, demography and resources, but also the scale and importance of its economy and financial markets, its scientific research and technology, its competitiveness, its military power and its attractiveness to talented immigrants. Second, there is the weight of history and of American exceptionalism. Throughout its history, the United States has repeatedly faced and eventually overcome daunting challenges and crises. Contrary to a prevailing pessimism, there is nothing inevitable about American decline. Ultimately, the ability to avoid serious decline is less a question of material factors than of policy, leadership and political will.

Reviews

‘The United States is experiencing another bout of anxiety regarding its relative power. While he is sober about the challenges confronting the nation, Robert Lieber makes a convincing case that, as in the past, fears of American decline will prove to have been greatly exaggerated. The United States has the resources necessary to continue to play the part of the world's preponderant power; the question is whether its leaders, and its people, will have the necessary wisdom and resolve. On this count, as Lieber makes plain, there is every reason for optimism.’

Aaron L. Friedberg - Princeton University

‘If there is anything that commands general agreement today it is that the US is declining. Lieber shows that much of the reasoning and claims here are not only superficial, but flatly wrong. His argument that the US has the economic and political resources to play the leading role in world if it chooses to do so deserves attention by scholars and members of the concerned public.’

Robert Jervis - Columbia University, and author of American Foreign Policy in a New Era

‘There is so much facile soothsaying on America's future as a has-been - as there was in the past four waves of Declininism since Sputnik. [Power and Willpower in the American Future] is a much-needed counter to the fifth wave, written by one of the country's authoritative scholars of U.S. foreign policy.’

Josef Joffe - Stanford University, and Editor, Die Zeit (Germany)

‘Robert Lieber offers a wise and lucid rebuttal to hyperbolic reports of American decline. His expertise on energy policy, Europe and the Middle East all shines through, as does his long (and positive) view of American exceptionalism. He recognizes China's challenge but notes that Beijing faces looming problems of its own and still falls well short of being America's peer competitor. The real bulwarks against decline, he argues, are America's vast moral and material resources and its historic resilience. In this well-researched book, Lieber offers a bracing challenge to the declinist literature and its policy prescriptions.’

Charles Lipson - Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago

‘Robert Lieber's clear, concise, and provocative analysis will become the starting point for the debate about the most important global issue of the next ten years: the future of American power in the world.’

Michael Mandelbaum - Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and co-author of That Used To Be Us

‘A writer of the clearest prose, his new book deserves a place at the top of the must-read list of everyone concerned about the nation we love …’

Belladonna Rogers - The PJ Tatler, PJ Media

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