The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course by Richard N. Haass

From the Publisher

In this dramatic new perspective on international affairs, Richard N. Haass, one of the country's most brilliant analysts and able foreign policy practitioners, argues that it is hard to overstate the significance of there being no major power conflict in the world. America's great military, economic, and political power discourages traditional challenges; no ideological fault line divides the world into warring blocs. India, China, Japan, Russia, and Europe all seek a prolonged period of stability that would support economic growth.

The opportunity thus exists for unprecedented cooperation among the major powers. This is good, because they share vulnerabilities. Globalization, which promotes trade and investment and eases travel and communication, also facilitates the spread of viruses (human and computer alike), weapons, terrorists, greenhouse gases, and drugs. And the United States, for all its strength, cannot defeat these threats alone.

But opportunity is not inevitability. The question is whether the United States will be able to integrate other countries into global efforts against terrorism, the spread of nuclear weapons, genocide, and protectionist policies that jeopardize global economic prosperity. This compelling book explains why it must and how it can.

The New York Times - Jocob Heilbrunn

Just as the neoconservatives spent years churning out manifestoes to make their case for a more assertive foreign policy, so the realists have now become the embattled minority of the Republican Party. As this intellectual conflict takes shape and grows, Haass's pithy book will undoubtedly become one of the debate's more significant volumes.

The New York Times 9/13/05

"Brims with excruciatingly sensible suggestions for making sure that large and powerful nations get along with one another."

St. Louis Dispatch July 24 2005

"Haass' easily understood book is an excellent place to begin... to understand the basic issues in American foreign policy."

The Washington Times 8/14/05

"Mr. Haass has made a significant contribution to the debate concerning United States foreign policy."

Foreign Affairs

Coming at a time when terrorism and the troubled Iraqi adventure have forced foreign policy thinkers to reexamine their positions, this book is a helpful guide in the search for a new grand strategic synthesis. In his elegant case for a grand strategy of pragmatic internationalism, Haass argues that the United States should seize today's historic opportunity to build a cooperative order of great powers, organized around institutions and partnerships that focus on attacking specific problems: genocide, failed states, pandemic disease, climate change. The United States' unprecedented power and the current accord among major states make the present moment unique, in Haass' view, opening the way for a new Congress of Vienna, where great powers agree on the "rules of the road" and work together to keep the peace. But there is nothing inevitable about this peace — the leading countries will need to compromise and exercise some strategic restraint to achieve it. Haass' disagreement with the Bush administration, accordingly, is not over the importance of maintaining U.S. primacy; it is over Bush's failure to use that primacy to integrate new states and lay down new global rules or to build a new global consensus on what the terms of sovereignty should be in a world where sovereignty can no longer be considered absolute.

What People Are Saying

Robert Kagan
Richard Haass stands out, both as a policymaker and as a thinker. You don't have to agree with all his judgments to admire and learn from this impressive book, one that does no less than set out a coherent vision for American foreign policy.

Henry Kissinger
Since the end of the Cold War, the country has searched for an integrating concept for the new conditions, a role performed for a generation by Kennan's containment theory. With The Opportunity, Richard Haass has undertaken to close this gap with imagination and insight. It is an important book for any period.

Michael Beschloss
At a pivotal moment in history, one of the wise men of our own time has brought us a brilliant, original and compelling portrait of our troubled 21st century world - and an often surprising prescription for making it better. Richard Haass's fascinating book should be essential reading for every leader and citizen who understands what is now at stake for all of us.

Fareed Zakaria
In this essential book, Richard Haass describes the enormous opportunity America has to use its power to help shape a better world. Unlike many in Washington today, he recognizes that to change the world we will have to work with the world - and be seen by it as a partner, not a bully. He goes beyond rhetorical posturing and outlines real solutions to difficult problems. Ranging far and wide with his usual clarity of thought and sound judgment, Haass has written the intelligent person's guide to foreign policy.

Product Details

• Table of Contents

Table of Contents