A World Challenged, Fighting Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070200506000132 |
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| Author | Gerald Wright |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
Yetsurely this is an impossible goal for
our
times, one dangerous to
embrace by looking backward at History rather
than
around
at
the
obstacles to be faced. Might it
not
be better
to
be presented with an
analysis
of
Middle East politics (on which Gaddis has very little to say),
or some reminiscences on Vietnam (nary aword), rather
than
to
invoke selectivepast grand strategies so as to favour this war? Emotion
trumps reason. Gaddis describes his encounters with his students, who
report to
him
sentiments such as, "I love this country. I love this place.
I love what we're doing here tonight [presumably his
Yale
grand strate-
gy course to which the book is dedicated]. I love it so much that I'm
prepared to defend
our
right to do it, which is why I'm joining the
Marines" (116). Such emotion allows Gaddis to close his book with
yet another exchange, when a student asks "in the dark and fearful days
that followed September 11rh: 'Would it be OK now for us to be patri-
otici" In the dramatic last words
of
his book, Gaddis replies,
"Yes,
I
think it would" (118). Uplifted by such experiences, Gaddis actually
sees President Bush transformed by 9/11 from Hal,
the
profligate
youth to Henry V, the great leader: Afghanistan is Agincourt,
and
the
Iraq War offers the opportunity to "repeat the Afghan Agincourt along
the banks
of
the Tigris
and
the Euphrates" (93).
To read Gaddis's book is
to
understand better the logic
of
self-decep-
tion that led to the Iraq War, the most serious mistake in at least a gener-
ation in the pursuit
of
American national security. For that reason,
but
no other, and certainly not for the reasonJohn Lewis Gaddis intends, his
book deserves
to
be widely
studied-and
apparently nowhere more
closelythan in the grand strategy course at
Yale
University that presum-
ably gave birth to this unwittingly instructive volume.
Tony Smith/Tufts University
A
WORLD
CHALLENGED
FightingTerrorism in the Twenty-First Century
YevgenyM. Primakov
Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2004. x, 150pp, US$22.95
cloth
(ISBN
0-8157-7194-0)
The attacks on the United States in September 2001 have afforded
Russia a strategic opportunity. By making
common
cause with
312
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Wimer 2004-2005
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