My Three Foreign Policy Books

My Three Foreign Policy Books

1. Icarus Syndrome – Peter Beinart

I really enjoyed reading Icarus Syndrome, it's an extremely well written book by an eloquent commentator and previous advocate for liberal interventionism. Beinart, like Hitchens and other liberal hawks backed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This excellent book is partly a way of Beinart explaining why he and other liberal interventionists supported the war and part how a nation like the US could be seduced by moments of hubris which would lead to ruination.

This book analyses three distinct and important periods in the history of American foreign policy: the Paris Peace Accords of 1919, the Vietnam War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Beinart discusses why the US made certain critical decisions during these three critical junctures and how the repercussions have shaped the US's role and outlook in the world.

The book is not a comprehensive history of the three periods. For this I would recommend Paris 1919, The Best and the Brightest and the Rise of the Vulcans. What Beinart offers is to show how the lessons and perceived lessons that have resulted from major world events have been learnt and internalised by institutions and individuals. Beinart's work shows how these perceived lessons are just as important in shaping policy as hard facts. This attention to the perceived lessons is the most intriguing part of the book as it reveals an often unappreciated part of diplomatic history. What individuals and institutions take from situations will shape policy often regardless of the facts on the ground. Both governments and societies should not ingrain any lesson or maxim to the extent that it can overrule what is clearly in front of them.

2. The Shia Revival – Vali Nasser

This book is important as it is a telling reminder that there was a Middle East, with its own rich history and internal rivalries long before the West became involved in the region. Islam's great divide between Shia and Sunni has set the tune to the movements of different countries and groups of the region and it continues to do so despite the influence of oil, terrorism and other external factors. The book shows how recent developments in the region fit into the much longer history of the Sunni/Shia struggle and how the preferences and beliefs of the two groups has shaped their fortunes up to now.

The most interesting and eye opening theme that I encountered is the almost forgotten idea that the 2003 has not just affected the region vis a vis the West. Western involvement, especially the invasion of Iraq has unsettled the balance of power and history between the two groups with the primary beneficiary of the toppling of Saddam being Iran. Vasser shows how the Shia have an chance to recast parts of the Middle East in their favour and that this will be strongly resisted by the Sunni states, focused around Saudi Arabia. The tensions between these two states will be the defining factor over regional stability.

The key issue is that policies will be lost in the region if they do not respect that Western efforts will feed into a larger history of the region rather than supplanted it.

3. Descent into Chaos – Ahmed Rashid

It's important to read a book about how things go wrong, how the best intentions can be for nothing and how a few critical mistakes can have such a terribly detrimental effect on both policy and the fate of a nation.

Rashid describes this elegantly in Descent into Chaos as he charts how the twin US objectives to both thwart Al Qaeda and develop Afghanistan often clashed to the detriment of both. Throw in a generous helping of cynicism from many in the Bush Administration coupled with the inevitable problems involved with such an ambitious nation building project and the causes of the in problems in Afghanistan becomes clearer.

The book elegantly imparts a large amount of information, imparting both a comprehensive picture of the fate of Afghanistan since the 9/11 attacks as well as portraying how errors, miss steps and chance have shaped it. This focus on the unintended consequences is the general theme of my three picks. What the West gleaned from the demise of the USSR was an overconfidence in capability of our arms and the extent of our knowledge. Instead of recognising our lack of appropriate knowledge about the rest of the world we insisted it could be reformed into an copy of ourselves. The West has had to relearn this humility at great cost to the prestige of its nations and the lives of so many of its citizens.