The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might

The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might Nancy Soderberg Date: 28 January, 2005   —   $18.45   —   Book product page Rating:

This is an excellent book. Soderberg puts the Clinton administration's foreign policy into historical perspective and contrasts it with the Bush administration's foreign policy. She really does an excellent job describing Clinton's foreign policy, "We believed the United States should proceed in a way that would serve our interests not only in the present but also in a future in which we might not be the sole economic, political, and military superpower."

That's pretty astute considering the rising presence of the EU, China, India, even Japan on the international stage. For example, after the Iraq invasion when US relations with Indonesia and Malaysia were at their lowest, the US offered to help police the Malacca Straits to clear it of pirates and terrorists (half the world's oil and a quarter of the world's freight is shipped through that narrow channel). We were told to get lost. China is now going to be the big player in securing that trade route.

She makes an interesting point that President Bush now realizes the harm done to US effectiveness by believing the US can do what it wants simply because it can (the superpower myth). He now seems to be shying away from the strict neo-conservative ideology. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, instead of switching to a more Clintonesque approach as Soderberg seems to think, President Bush is turning back to his pre-9/11 Cold War policies of containing China and pushing for missile defense.

Soderberg pulls no punches in critiquing President Clinton's policy blunders. By the same token, she's not shy about trumpeting the successes either. Peace in Northern Ireland, seven years of peace and dialogue in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, restoring the democratically elected leader of Haiti, and toppling that fascist Milosovic are probably the big ones.

Speaking of that, she makes an interesting point that, despite all the rhetoric about spreading democracy, the Bush administration supported (if not backed) a coup against the democratically elected leaders of Venezuela and Haiti. They're also propping up the military junta in Pakistan. The disconnect between words and deeds in the Bush administration is negatively affecting the credibility of the United States.

She also points out something that should be obvious: the US and EU are not yet ready to intervene in genocide and bloody civil wars that are outside their strategic interest (Africa). As far as I'm concerned, all those people saying we needed to intervene in Iraq for humanitarian reasons (the only excuse left) are just total hypocrites because not a single one of them was clamoring for US troops on the ground in Rwanda, Darfur, or Liberia.

Anyhow, here's one of the big lesson's that the Bush administration should have learned from the many military actions taken during the Clinton administration: "...international forces must remain in place, not only until military tasks are completed but also until the political indigenous will and structures exist to support a stable government and a local security force to keep the peace." The original idea that we'd be in and out of Iraq within a single year is just laughable.

Dang, there's so much to this book! The structure threw me a little at first. It's organized by issue rather than as a historical narrative, so at first you feel like you're constantly zooming back and forth in time. But once you get used to it, it's a good format. Soderberg covers everything from North Korea to Israel to international terrorism to Iraq to Afghanistan to Ireland to Africa to China... You name it, it's there. This is a must-have book for anyone interested in recent US foreign policy.