BuzzFlash Reviews

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What a clever little book to explain the options for American foreign policy in the post-American Century, when this nation must face that it is no longer the ruler of the world; i.e., how do Obama and Clinton construct a nimble, realistic foreign policy that recognizes that the U.S. is no longer atop its Post WW II perch of unilateral international dominance?

The two "think tank" foreign policy experts who wrote this brief book cleverly turned to the classic Mafia film, "The Godfather." They use Sonny (Neo-Con warrior), Michael (Realist), and adopted son Tom Hagen (Neo-Liberal negotiator of the status quo) as metaphorical protoypes for our nation dealing with a world that has multiple serious "players" (think China, Russia, India, Iran and the European Union, for example).

"When it comes to American statecraft, the imperative of the moment is to think anew. In that regard, John Hulsman and Wess Mitchell perform a dual service. They persuasively demonstrate just how tired the existing foreign policy debate has become. And their Godfather Doctrine offers an alternative that is as provocative as it is entertaining."

-- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of "The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism"

The authors make it clear that they see Michael Corleone as the favored model of realism, innovation (moving the Corleone family's business into the then emerging world of gambling in Vegas), and strategic ruthlessness (which might be carrying the analogy a bit too far for many progressives).

It's a slim book, literally a long essay with an epilogue, but it's quite persuasive and fascinating for a quick, quick read. In fact, Princeton University Press was so impressed with the original commentary on "The Godfather Doctrine" that they picked it up as a short book, one you'll probably pass around.

We fault the authors for not getting into the parallels between Sonny and -- let's say -- Dick Cheney, in that Cheney sees the world as America's gas station. But it's too crisp and short to get into such detail; the parallel is implicit in its description of how Sonny sees his role as one to restore the Corleone "territory" as it was before his father, Vito, was shot -- and to do that with pre-emptive, brutal, and unrelenting war against the other crime families. It's the mindset that got us into Iraq.

A. Wess Mitchell, one of the co-authors of "The Godfather Doctrine," wrote an op-ed in the LA Times that will introduce you into the premise of the book: America is a nation in decline on the world stage and it needs to develop a flexible strategy to preserve its interests and form of government. The commentary is entitled "Obama's multipolar moment:
The United States today faces an unfamiliar and rapidly changing world landscape. In short, America is moving from being a uni-power to sharing a world that is now multi-power (or as Wess calls it, "multi-polar).

Quite a thought-provoking and accessible read. It's not easy to pull off such a "parable" without stretching it to the breaking point, but these two wonks manage to do it in an engaging, persuasive and enlightening style.

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