Content area
Full Text
America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order. By Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004. 369 pp.
Neo-conservative influence on American politics and foreign policy has been widely discussed but not crystallized in a book-length analysis. America Alone accomplishes that task. The work is not original in the sense that the authors discover something that is not known, but they do succeed in explaining the key beliefs held by neo-conservatives, sketching the rise of the movement, and situating it within the broader context of U.S. politics. Moreover, they try to demonstrate how neo-conservatives were central in pushing for war against Iraq, partly by exaggerating Iraq's threat in efforts to eliminate the menace of Saddam Hussein, to make the world safer, and especially to democratize Iraq and the broader Middle East. Furthermore, Halper and Clarke seek to show how neo-conservatives fundamentally misunderstand the world in which we live and how their influence has hurt the United States, not only at home but also in terms of its image abroad, its effort to fight terrorism, and its strained war in Iraq. Needless to say, the authors are not fans of neo-conservatism, despite being cut from conservative...