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Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order

By: Robert Kagan
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
ISBN: 1400040930
ISBN-13: 9781400040933
Released: 18 Feb 2003
RRP: £11.78
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Customer Reviews

Enlightening and thoroughly balanced - By: Kurt A. Johnson, 08 Apr 2004
In this fascinating little book, author Robert Kagan (author of Sleeping With the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude) presents the reader with a piercing & evenhanded analysis of why the United States & Europe have become so alienated from each other, & how we have come to this point. The author sees the alienation as being caused by two facts. The first is that there is a substantive difference in military power, with America having the might to do what it thinks best, & Europe finding its options limited by its lack of might. Secondly, both Europe & the United States are products of their own histories, with Europe finding its future by binding its members with multilateral agreements & forbidding unilateral military operations, & with America being shaped by its understanding that it faces enemies throughout the world that must be dealt with by force.

OK, let me say that the summary above is completely inadequate to describe this thoughtful work. I found Mr. Kagan's analysis to be quite enlightening, & thoroughly balanced. He does not look for good guys & bad guys in the trans-Atlantic rift, but instead explains quite clearly why it exists. If you wish to understand the present rift between the United States & Western Europe, then I cannot recommend another book as highly as I do this one!