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    The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat
    Unavailable
    The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat
    Unavailable
    The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat
    Audiobook11 hours

    The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat

    Written by Vali Nasr

    Narrated by Stephen Hoye

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In a brilliant and revealing book destined to drive debate about the future of American power, Vali Nasr questions America's dangerous choice to engage less and matter less in the world.

    Vali Nasr, author of the groundbreaking The Shia Revival, worked closely with Hillary Clinton at the State Department on Afghan and Pakistani affairs. In The Dispensable Nation, he takes us behind the scenes to show how Secretary Clinton and her ally, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, were thwarted in their efforts to guide an ambitious policy in South Asia and the Middle East. Instead, four years of presidential leadership and billions of dollars of U.S. spending failed to advance democracy and development, producing mainly rage at the United States for its perceived indifference to the fate of the region.

    After taking office in 2009, the Obama administration had an opportunity to fundamentally reshape American foreign policy, Nasr argues, but its fear of political backlash and the specter of terrorism drove it to pursue the same questionable strategies as its predecessor. Meanwhile, the true economic threats to U.S. power, China and Russia, were quietly expanding their influence in places where America has long held sway.

    Nasr makes a compelling case that behind specific flawed decisions lurked a desire by the White House to pivot away from the complex problems of the Muslim world. Drawing on his unrivaled expertise in Middle East affairs and firsthand experience in diplomacy, Nasr demonstrates why turning our backs is dangerous and, what's more, sells short American power. The United States has secured stability, promoted prosperity, and built democracy in region after region since the end of the Second World War, he reminds us, and The Dispensable Nation offers a striking vision of what it can achieve when it reclaims its bold leadership in the world.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9780385360449
    Unavailable
    The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat

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    Reviews for The Dispensable Nation

    4/5

    17 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      [The Dispensable Nation] by: [[Vali Nasr]] Excellent book about the state of American Foreign Policy. It chronicles how we have made mistakes on Iraq, how we have ignored overtures from Iran and have done virtually nothing regarding the Arab Spring. Our Foreign Policy has been in retreat, relying mostly on pressure, military might, counterterrorism, drones, and very little on diplomacy. China is proving to be a big player in the Middle East and South East Asia and we should counter them as far as economic and diplomatic policy. All in all this was a quick read but a worthy read on the state of our foreign policy.
    • 4/5
      I've only read a little of the US's foreign policy regarding the Middle East. This was definitely a pretty good introduction to recent past and the current situation. It is definitely a very one sided perspective, and I could likely get a much different view from other authors. He backs up most of his assertions with facts and there's enough information there to read between the lines and remove some of the author's bias. I think it would be important for this book to be only one of several in formulating and opinion of our current foreign policy.
    • 2/5
      Author Vali Nasr has an impressive pedigree, according to his official bio on the Johns Hopkins University website. Born in Tehran in 1960, he emigrated to Britain at age 16, and then to the US at 19, where he attended Tufts University, matriculating with a BA in International Relations, summa cum laude. From there, he went on to Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he earned his masters, and finally to MIT, where he earned a PhD. He has held professorships at several universities, and currently serves as Dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He is a member of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board, and a Life Member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Selected by Richard Holbrooke himself as a key advisor for his team (high praise, indeed, to be hand-selected by the man who engineered the Dayton Peace Accords!), Nasr is an acknowledged expert on the Middle East.I make it a rule to avoid political discussions. I do my level best to wade through the morass and keep abreast of current events, but politics is just one of those things, like religion, upon which it is best to keep your own counsel. Unless, of course, you’re spoiling for a fight. Then, by all means, have at it.I don’t pay much attention to party lines. Like most Americans, I imagine, I’m pretty sick of the petty sectarian squabbles. Nasr is quite obviously a Democrat, and seems to have little love for Republicans. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I suspect that is less due to party rhetoric and more due to their recent record on foreign policy, which he seems to feel is even more riddled with missteps and pratfalls than that of the Democrats.I have thus far completed slightly over ten percent of Nasr’s book, and it became an exercise in antipathy about fifteen pages ago. I looked forward to reading this book. Every day I checked the mail with great anticipation, and when my review copy of the bound galley finally arrived from the publisher, I couldn’t wait to sit down and dive in. So far, however, it has been more of an extended indulgence in Obama-bashing than a treatise on an intelligent policy for the Middle East.While I don’t necessarily disagree with Nasr’s opinion of Obama and his administration, I find this sort of indulgence in finger pointing and denunciation whiny, puerile, and unconstructive. Have you ever had an argument with someone who insisted on rehashing the argument itself ad infinitum? Long after the point where it was constructive in any way? That is what Nasr’s book so far puts me in mind of. I was looking forward to an informed opinion outlining an insightful solution to the problems facing our relations with the Middle East. What I got instead is an incessant pounding that leaves me with a strong urge to inquire as to whether Nasr would like some mustard with the horse he has beaten beyond all recognition. Frankly, I expected more.I have always had a great deal of respect for Richard Holbrooke. He apparently thought quite highly of Nasr, and it is this that has so far kept me wading through this book, despite my growing disgust. But it feels like I’m swimming upstream, and my arms are getting tired. Desperation finally found me, a few moments ago, leafing forward in the book to find an end to the litany. To my relief, it appears as though the book I had hoped I would be reading begins somewhere around page fifty-two.Speaking optimistically, Nasr has done a fine job of stating the problem in glorious detail. It is my fervent hope that I shall soon have the opportunity to learn more of his solutions. Stay tuned; if that indeed turns out to be the case, I will soon post a review of that book.Postscript: To my great disappointment, the book I had hoped for never did fully materialize.In the pages of this book, author Vali Nasr paints a bleak picture, in broad, dark strokes, of an administration overwhelmingly populated by sycophants and imbeciles, fiercely territorial and blind to all but their own ambitions and agendas. He would have you believe that in this dreary landscape only a few bright lights shine to beckon us from the abyss: Richard Holbrooke and Hilary Clinton. And, of course, he, himself, as their loyal and steadfast acolyte. While I’ve little love for and less faith in the political infrastructure we currently find ourselves burdened with, I find this view utterly ridiculous. I rarely agree with the decisions made by Obama and his administration; I feel that he is an ineffective and weak leader, who has chosen in many cases to listen to poor advice. But by no stretch of the imagination do I believe that the entire population of the legislative and military communities are without intellect, talent, or good intentions. Execution falls short far more often than it should, no doubt, but it is this very “us against them” mentality that often leads to such failures.Nasr sees himself, no doubt, as a champion. A voice in the darkness. But in all actuality, he spends much of this book grinding his axe. It made the book a slog to get through. There are some good kernels in here, insights into the thinking of Middle Eastern leaders that could suggest solutions to some of the vexing problems plaguing our foreign policy. But rather than focus on those solutions, Nasr has chosen here to spend the majority of the book pointing out the flaws and failures of the Obama administration, which becomes very old very quickly. Perhaps the most disturbing part of this, it occurs to me, is that Nasr is, in fact, an eminent scholar in International Relations. He is teaching the future diplomats and advisors of our nation. I can only hope that, when doing so, he spends more time offering insight and far less time whining about Obama.
    • 4/5
      This is an informative book about foreign policy in the middle east. The author covers issues related to several of the countries in the middle east including: Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Vali is an expert on the issues and has some definite opinions on how America should best be a player in this area. He anticipates a growing involvement by China in the area and in international issues in general. I am not an expert in this area, so I consider this to be educational. I cannot intelligently comment on the veracity or the wisdom of his suggestions.
    • 4/5
      The U.S. is declining in influence in the Middle East, so says Vali Nasr. He blames this, in part, on Obama's continued following of strategies put forward by the George W. Bush administration. Nasr argues that the vacuum left by the U.S. could be filled by China/Iran/Turkey and to counter this, the U.S. needs to engage more economically with the region and less militarily. Unfortunately, this sounds like throwing good money after bad.
    • 5/5
      While Vali Nasr, doesn’t put all the blame on President Barack Obama for what he sees as the decline of America’s role in today’s world, he does blame him for much of it. Born and raised in Iran, the dean of the Paul H. Nitze Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and former senior advisor to Ambassador Richard Holbrook, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Nasr was in a unique position to observe the workings of the Obama administration’s foreign policy. The chapters focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, the Arab Spring, the role of other nations, especially China, in the changing Middle East, the influence of other Arab and Moslem countries, and what America can do to regain credibility.When he campaigned for office, Obama spoke about changing the policies of President George W. Bush and extricating the US from the Middle East wars begun during that administration. Unfortunately, President Obama chose to surround himself with “a small cabal of relatively inexperienced White House advisors” who were more concerned about “how any action in Afghanistan or the Middle East would play on the nightly news” or how the Republicans would be able to use his actions against him. Nasr claims that “America went into Iraq to build democracy, but left building an authoritarian state as an exit strategy....Obama was not really committed to democracy in the Middle East.” That lack of a foreign policy, partially the result of Obama’s inexperience in that area and of his over reliance on his close-knit, inexperienced group of advisors formed the core of his inability to resolve the issues in America’s favor. They were used to working in a fast-pace campaign mode. Governing a country requires different skills. Obama also insisted on examining every detail personally, which not only slowed down the process for making decisions, it also lessened the information that could be used to make those decisions. In addition, when he did not like the options he was offered, instead of asking for more options, he chose one of them anyhow. Leaders of the opposition of both Afghanistan and Pakistan sent messages that they wanted to talk to the US to find a solution to the war. The US refused to meet with them, preferring to use the military to achieve its aims.When writing about Iran, Nasr states that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to deal with the US. Unfortunately his tactics backfired. “He hoped his vitriol, denying the Holocaust, taunting Israel, and rallying resistance to America, would make him too important to ignore....He made himself a pariah.” He wrote to Obama to congratulate him on his election in 2008. He received no response. He supported making a deal about the nuclear issue but got no credit for that.To get Russia’s support for sanctions against Iraq, Obama ignored the human rights abuses perpetrated by Russia.It is necessary to win the support of the people in order for a government to be successful but the US provided money to help favored projects regardless of how they would help the population. For example, COIN (counterinsurgency) sent almost all its money into Helmand province which housed fewer than one percent of the population. In 2011, only six percent of Afghans had electricity but the US spent $1 billion to provide electricity to parts of Kandahar. In both Pakistan and Afghanistan, Holbrook and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton believed the United States should engage the people and use that relationship to achieve if not a peaceful at least a workable solution to the problems. For example, the State Department noted that the US went into Afghanistan to get the Taliban. When the group moved to Pakistan, the US continued the fight in Afghanistan. The Obama Administration chose, instead, to use a dual approach: diplomacy plus military might with the emphasis on the latter. It also excluded the State Department from many of the meetings relating to the Middle East and ignored its observations.People in the are fear our military power because they think we use it recklessly and they can’t defend themselves against it. They don’t want to agree to plans they know won’t work and put their nations at risk. They believe we will abandon them when push comes to shove, or even earlier, leaving them to deal with the mess we have made. None of the issues that brought us to the Middle East have been resolved.Instead, China has taken advantage of the turmoil and has been gaining influence. It wants to extend its influence in the Middle East and maintain the oil and gas sources it desperately needs. Part of its operation is giving money to the countries for projects that the people can actually see, such as bridges, highways and rail routes, which makes China more appealing to them. China also has the ability to move some of the low-paying jobs which have resulted in low cost products throughout much of the world, including the US, to Arab countries. That would help resolve two problems: Unemployment and low incomes.Another major problem underlies much of the turmoil in the Middle East: Sunni versus Shia. The sectarian feuds, many caused by minority-ruled governments, will not disappear without a lot of work and time. The US doesn’t seem to want to expend either.The Arab Spring was the result of a long history of “political repression, economic stagnation, and cultural and religious expression.” Nasr writes that the US should return to diplomacy and economic engagement to help regain its preeminent place in the world as well as help bring democracy to other countries. We should “ensure regional stability and promote regional harmony.” It worked before and could do so again.As I write this review, Egypt has overthrown its democratically elected president after less than a year in office. The country’s future is uncertain. The US is planning its exit from Afghanistan while terrorist attacks against the forces we support are ongoing. These issues or the possibility of them are discussed in the book.This well-written, well-documented book does an excellent job putting America’s foreign policy and its results under a microscope and provides suggestions for improvement. It supports many of the comments found in Kim Ghattas’s recent book THE SECRETARY which discussed Hillary Clinton’s years as Secretary of State.I received my Early Reviewers copy from LibraryThing.