Tek,
A larger question for which you may not have the time to craft a response.
As you know, Tony Judt's most recent article in The New York Review of Books is a book review of some prominent attempts to put a frame on American foreign policy. Judt uses the metaphor of George Kennan and remarks that each author seems to aspire to the Kennan mantle for the early portions, at least, of the 21st Century.
As you may also know, he reviews the most recent books by Robert Kagan, Michael Mandelbaum, Charles Kupchan, David Calleo, and Fareed Zakaria.
I wonder if you could offer some brief comments, nothing on the order of a book review, on these books. Are any worth a serious read (I've read the Kagan article); if so, could you give them some sort of ranking, however rough, that is which you like and dislike; are any of them more likely to influence policy makers (I assume the answer here is Kagan because of his proximity to the Pentagon folk).
Here's the url for Judt's piece in case you have yet to read it:
nybooks.com |
