The American Way of Strategy: U.S. Foreign Policy and the American Way of Life

by Michael Lind

Americans are unlikely to lose their cherished rights because of a military coup or a foreign conquest, writes Michael Lind. The more plausible and frightening scenario is one in which foreign danger forces Americans themselves to jettison their way of life, sacrificing liberty to ensure
security. To prevent this scenario from happening is the real purpose of American strategy.
In The American Way of Strategy , Lind argues that the goal of U.S. foreign policy has always been the preservation of the American way of life--embodied in civilian government, checks and balances, a commercial economy, and individual freedom. Lind describes how successive American
statesmen--from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Alexander Hamilton to Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan--have pursued an American way of strategy that minimizes the dangers of empire and anarchy by two liberal internationalism and realism. At its best, the
American way of strategy is a well-thought-out and practical guide designed to preserve a peaceful and demilitarized world by preventing an international system dominated by imperial and militarist states and its disruption by anarchy. When American leaders have followed this path, they have lead
our nation from success to success, and when they have deviated from it, the results have been disastrous.
Framed in an engaging historical narrative, the book makes an important contribution to contemporary debates. The American Way of Strategy is certain to change the way that Americans understand U.S. foreign policy.

Genres: Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Currently Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program at the New America Foundation in Washington, Michael Lind has been an editor or staff writer for The New Yorker, Harper’s Magazine, and The New Republic and writes frequently for The New York Times and the Financial Times. He is the author of more than a dozen books of history, political journalism, and fiction, including a poetry chapbook, When You Are Someone Else (Aralia Press, 2002), Bluebonnet Girl (Henry Holt and Co. (BYR), 2003), a children’s book in verse, which won an Oppenheimer Toy Prize for children’s literature, and a narrative poem, The Alamo (Replica Books, 1999), which the Los Angeles Times named as one of the best books of the year. His first collection of verse, Parallel Lives, was published by Etruscan Press in 2007.

Reviews

[JC Sevart · Rating 1 out of 5]

Moments in this book are interesting but between the blatant propaganda and the ahistorical reading of American history I gotta say this one is pretty bad. There's better readings of American historical foreign policy and better analyses of international power politics in a post cold war, post 9/11 world

[Tanner Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent overview of the history and development of American foreign policy. The author takes a strong stance on what he believes is the current policy and what he believes is the right policy. Sometimes, in his view, these coincide with one another. More often than not, however, these are not one-in-the-same. This books breaks policies down into easy-to-digest bites without being too reductionist.

[Anna C · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book should not work.

In the course of a few chapters, Michael Lind rewrites the entire history of the United States, explaining everything from Manifest Destiny to the Cold War through a particular angle of international relations theory. I found myself skeptical throughout this entire case- how can you say the entire 18th and 19th centuries were driven by a need to establish a balance of power in Europe?

I approached Lind with a highly critical eye. This is the ultimate "big idea" thesis, and I was desperate to pick it apart. To my great disappointment, Lind's case is watertight. Honestly, this man re-appropriates the whole of American History to match his own personal dogma, and it works. It works better than should be physically possible.

My only real critique of Lind is that he downplays the outright genocide involved in Manifest Destiny. The man is doubtless aware of this, yet he chooses to leave that aside to focus on his real argument. I would have gotten more ticked off about this, but since Lind then spent a large chunk of the book eviscerating Bush-era foreign policy and calling out the United States on other human rights violations, I was more than willing to excuse it.

A great introduction to international relations. Lind is a clear writer, which is basically all you can ask for in a political theory text (honestly, most of those guys seem to be competing to see who can express a single concept in the most confusing way).

Read for an American Foreign Policy course.

[Curt · Rating 5 out of 5]

The USA's rise to power was based on control of industry and trade, and it could fall the same way. Our self-interest requires us to make sure no-one else can unite Europe, the Middle East, or Asia against us. Our best gift to the world is not democracy, but liberalism. The liberal notions of giving people freedom of economics, religion, travel, and from violence are notions that can be internationally imposed without requiring democracy, and if we concentrate on those goals, we'd need less military and more internationalism to make them happen.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not overly insightful, but a decent effort at fleshing out what a lot of people understand intuitively but have a difficult time articulating.

America fights to protect the American way of life and is not overly enthusiastic about fighting when a particular issue cannot be construed in that light. Things go badly when we sacrifice our way of life in overly ambitious efforts to protect ourselves. Destroying the village in order to save it isn't good grand strategy.