The Frugal Superpower

“What he argues is that the world order that the United States has fostered rested on an extraordinarily powerful economy and, in effect, a great surplus of power. The United States used its power, by and large wisely, to provide certain kinds of public goods for the world at large. Right now, Mandelbaum argues, the United States is on a track of fiscal irresponsibility that will constrict its freedom of action down the road, and limit its ability to continue to provide those public goods that have benefited both itself and the world more generally. The Mandelbaum book is a cautionary tale about the consequences of American domestic mismanagement and what the implications may be for American foreign policy – and the liberal world order that American policy has so lovingly created and maintained – in the decades to come…So the message from Mandelbaum is, in effect, “’ll you who want to see a more restrained America, you’re about to get your wish, because we can’t afford to act the way we have acted!’ Now we will test whether that is actually a good thing or, as Mandelbaum worries, a not so good thing.” Read more...

The best books on US Foreign Policy

Gideon Rose, International Relation