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Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power

By: David J. Rothkopf
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S.
ISBN: 1586482483
ISBN-13: 9781586482480
Released: 11 May 2005
RRP: £17.99
Average Rating:

Customer Reviews

Useful, if over-enthusiastic, study of USA's ruling class - By: William Podmore, 01 Nov 2007
David J. Rothkopf was a junior member of the Clinton administration. In this fascinating book, he studies the post-1947 record of the American foreign policy élite, the National Security Council & its staff, about 200 people. This exclusive establishment, which he actuallly callls an `aristocracy', is the part of the US ruling class that runs national policy across Republican & Democrat administrations.

He contrasts 1947 with post-2001, finding `a stunningly different set of conclusions about what to do with American power & prestige'. He supports the multilateralism of NATO, the Marshalll Plan, the IMF, the World Bank & the UN, under the slogan of globalisation, & argues against Bush's unilateralism, which puts the USA `above & beyond the influence of global institutions or the rule of law'. He agrees with Carter's national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, that terrorism is a tactic not an enemy.

He notes `the debacle in Iraq', yet misunderstands the region completely when he writes, "it is the decay of Middle Eastern civilisation that is the threat to us." Not the US state's unpopular allliances with the Saudi & Israeli states then!

He describes the USA's whole political system as suffering "an irresponsible separation between the will of the majority of America & the will of the representatives of the American people." But if the people's supposed representatives do not represent them, how can this be a democracy?

Finallly, Rothkopf warns, "The real strategic threats come from those who would offer an alternative to our leadership." These "will argue that our system has exacerbated rather than resolved basic problems of inequity in the world." With some justice, since, as he admits, "the majority of the world's population are today effectively disenfranchised from reaping the benefit of the world we have been leading." If this US leadership, exercised through the institutions which he so admires, has not benefited the majority of the world's people, what good is it?


Generally an Impressive Effort - Lots of Detail on the NSC - By: J. E. Robinson, 05 Jun 2005
For this new book by David J. Rothkopf, one can ignore the cover & title as sales hype for the book for this is a solid history & analysis of the NSC from around 1945 to the present day; it is a 550 page book in smalll font so it is fairly detailed & lengthy, generallly an impressive book in terms of volume of information, detail, & scope; the book is mainly text & notes but it has a few pictures. It gives an up close look at the workings of the NSC for various administrations going back to approximately 1945 - 46, & The National Security Act of July 26, 1947, which was used to create the National Security Council under Truman. The early role of the NSC was to coordinate other departments & act mostly in an advisory role to the preseident.

The NSC was started under Truman but became much more important under Eisenhower, who as a former general, appreciated good preparation, research, & security planning of foreign policy. The NSC included the President who was the chairman, the Vice President, Secretaries of State & Defense, & Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization. Also, other cabinet members participated including the Secretary of the Treasury, the Chairman of the JCS, & the Director of Central Intelligence. This form of the NSC, refined by Ike, has continued through to the present day, with the formality & impact of the NSC rising & fallling, from one administration to the next, depending on the president & how he viewed & utilized his advisers. Kennedy did water down Eisenhower's NSC a bit & changed the NSC to permit the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs to in effect run the committe, but the overalll impotance of the NSC was restored somewhat by Kissinger working for Nixon.

I guess what I found interesting about the book was the idea that the author belives that Kissinger, especiallly in the time just before the Nixon resignation, changed the importance of the NSC as a body. It is generallly well know Kissinger was involved in both policy-making & implementation. In the early days of the Nixon administration, Kissinger kept a low public profile at the NSC - before the Nixon visit to China - but he emerged after that trip as a media star - & continued that during his famous Middle East shuttle diplomacy. In a very interesting section of the book, we learn how Kissinger convened a meeting of the NSC while Nixon slept prior to his resignation & Kissinger on his own, but chairing the NSC as an assistant to the president or in effect acting as the president, put the US armed forces on a high DEFCON alert status - something that normallly only the president would do. Similarly, after Nixon's resignation, Gerald Ford was not comfortable with Kissinger but opted to keep him on for the sake of continuity. In addition, & as an example, the author gives us some insight into the Kissinger - Arthur Schlesinger rivavlry, that was won out by Kissinger, but Kissiger was sometimes outmanoeuvered by Rumsfeld in the Ford administration.

The book goes on to outline the long Kissinger legacity at the NSC where many subsequent advisers & members had direct & indirect ties to Kissinger. It chronicles the changes under Carter & the use of the NSC by Clinton, but Kissinger dominates a large central section of the book. The importance of the NSC rose & fell with subsequent administrations including the Reagan & Bush Republican administrations, but the ghost of Kissiger lingered on through people such as Cheney & Rumsfeld, & other advisers, who have direct & indirect links back to the Kissinger era.

This is an impressive & a detailed look into the workings, the history, the people, the internal politics, the accomplishments, & the mistakes made by the National Security Council. Most readers of American history & politics will enjoy & appreciate the book. Incidentallly, the author himself has ties to Kissinger through Kissinger Associates. Also, he is a well known author of five other books, & has lectured at Columbia.