Christopher A. Preble's Books

The Power Problem

How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free

By: Christopher A. Preble

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The Power Problem

How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free

By: Christopher A. Preble

Numerous polls show that Americans want to reduce our military presence abroad, allowing our allies and other nations to assume greater responsibility both for their own defense and for enforcing security in their respective regions. In The Power Problem, Christopher A. Preble explores the aims, costs, and limitations of the use of this nation's military power; throughout, he makes the case that the majority of Americans are right, and the foreign policy experts who disdain the public's perspective are wrong. Preble is a keen and skeptical observer of recent U.S. foreign policy experiences, which have been marked by the promiscuous use of armed intervention. He documents how the possession of vast military strength runs contrary to the original intent of the Founders, and has, as they feared, shifted the balance of power away from individual citizens and toward the central government, and from the legislative and judicial branches of government to the executive. In Preble's estimate, if policymakers in Washington have at their disposal immense military might, they will constantly be tempted to overreach, and to redefine ever more broadly the "national interest." Preble holds that the core national interest—preserving American security—is easily defined and largely immutable. Possessing vast military power in order to further other objectives is, he asserts, illicit and to be resisted. Preble views military power as purely instrumental: if it advances U.S. security, then it is fulfilling its essential role. If it does not—if it undermines our security, imposes unnecessary costs, and forces all Americans to incur additional risks—then our military power is a problem, one that only we can solve. As it stands today, Washington's eagerness to maintain and use an enormous and expensive military is corrosive to contemporary American democracy.

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229

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801457912

ISBN 13

9780801457913

Terrorizing Ourselves

Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy is Failing and How to Fix It

By: Benjamin H. Friedman,Jim Harper,Christopher A. Preble

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Terrorizing Ourselves

Why U.S. Counterterrorism Policy is Failing and How to Fix It

By: Benjamin H. Friedman,Jim Harper,Christopher A. Preble

Terrorizing Ourselves dismantles much of the flawed thinking that dominates U.S. counterterrorism policy today and lays out alternative approaches informed by experience, deliberation, and the well-established norms of a free society. Leading experts in the field contributed to this important new book, which shows that politicians use fear for political purposes and spend vast sums of money on dubious security measures. These experts explore the nature of modern terrorism, explain and decry our panicked responses to it, and offer sober alternatives. Beyond specific proposals for disrupting terror cells and improving homeland security efforts, Terrorizing Ourselves documents the many ways in which a climate of fear-mongering exacerbates the threat of terrorism. Terrorists, the authors note, get their name for a reason. Fear is their chief tactic. Political forces push U.S. policymakers to hype this fear, encouraging Americans to believe that terrorists are global super villains who can wreck American society unless we submit to their demands. This book shows that policies based on this fantasy are self-defeating and bring needless war, wasted wealth, and less freedom. The authors explore strategies to undermine support for these policies. They also sketch an alternative counterterrorism and homeland security strategy—one that makes us safer and plays to Americans’ confidence rather than our fears.

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Page Count

331

Publisher

Cato Institute

Published Date

ISBN 10

1935308319

ISBN 13

9781935308317

Exiting Iraq

Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War Against Al Qaeda : Report of a Special Task Force

By: Christopher A. Preble

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Exiting Iraq

Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War Against Al Qaeda : Report of a Special Task Force

By: Christopher A. Preble

Within months of the United States and its coalition partners toppling Saddam Husseins government, the Cato Institute convened a special task force of scholars and policy experts to examine U.S. strategic interests in Iraq and to question the Bush administrations intention to 2stay as long as necessary. 3 The result of their efforts was a book of their analysis that was published near the one-year anniversary of the occupation -- Exiting Iraq. As the war now enters its fourth year, Exiting Iraq remains as clear and incisive as ever, with the added dimension of its being so prophetic in what it saw, predicted, and urgently recommended. In addition to the members (listed below) of the special task force calling for the military occupation to end they showed how the presence of troops in Iraq distracts attention from fighting al-Qaeda and emboldens a new class of terrorists to take up arms against the United States. Moreover, the report underscores how the occupation is enormously costly for American taxpayers, exposes our men and women in uniform to unnecessary risks, and undermines attempts to foster political and economic reform in the region. - Publisher.

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Page Count

100

Publisher

Cato Institute

Published Date

ISBN 10

1930865643

ISBN 13

9781930865648

Psychology of a Superpower

Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy

By: Christopher Fettweis

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Psychology of a Superpower

Security and Dominance in U.S. Foreign Policy

By: Christopher Fettweis

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was left as the world’s sole superpower, which was the dawn of an international order known as unipolarity. The ramifications of imbalanced power extend around the globe—including the country at the center. What has the sudden realization that it stands alone atop the international hierarchy done to the United States? In Psychology of a Superpower, Christopher J. Fettweis examines how unipolarity affects the way U.S. leaders conceive of their role, make strategy, and perceive America’s place in the world. Combining security, strategy, and psychology, Fettweis investigates how the idea of being number one affects the decision making of America’s foreign-policy elite. He examines the role the United States plays in providing global common goods, such as peace and security; the effect of the Cold War’s end on nuclear-weapon strategy and policy; the psychological consequences of unbalanced power; and the grand strategies that have emerged in unipolarity. Drawing on psychology’s insights into the psychological and behavioral consequences of unchecked power, Fettweis brings new insight to political science’s policy-analysis toolkit. He also considers the prospect of the end of unipolarity, offering a challenge to widely held perceptions of American indispensability and asking whether the unipolar moment is worth trying to save. Psychology of a Superpower is a provocative rethinking of the risks and opportunities of the global position of the United States, with significant consequences for U.S. strategy, character, and identity.

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Page Count

226

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231547412

ISBN 13

9780231547413

Return to Warden's Grove

Science, Desire, and the Lives of Sparrows

By: Christopher Norment

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Return to Warden's Grove

Science, Desire, and the Lives of Sparrows

By: Christopher Norment

Based on three seasons of field research in the Canadian Arctic, Christopher Norment’s exquisitely crafted meditation on science and nature, wildness and civilization, is marked by bottomless prose, reflection on timeless questions, and keen observations of the world and our place in it. In an era increasingly marked by cutting-edge research at the cellular and molecular level, what is the role for scientists of sympathetic observation? What can patient waiting tell us about ourselves and our place in the world? His family at home in the American Midwest, Norment spends months on end living in isolation in the Northwest Territories, studying the ecology of the Harris’s Sparrow. Although the fourteenth-century German mystic Meister Eckhardt wrote, “God is at home, we are in the far country,” Norment argues that an intellectual, emotional, and spiritual “far country” can be found in the lives of animals and arctic wilderness. For Norment, “doing science” can lead to an enriched aesthetic and emotional connection to something beyond the self and a way to develop a sacred sense of place in a world that feels increasingly less welcoming, certain, and familiar.

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Page Count

235

Publisher

University of Iowa Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1587297493

ISBN 13

9781587297496

The End of Overkill

Reassessing U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

By: Benjamin Friedman,Christopher Preble,Matt Fay

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The End of Overkill

Reassessing U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy

By: Benjamin Friedman,Christopher Preble,Matt Fay

U.S. security does not require nearly 1,600 nuclear weapons deployed on a triad of systems—bombers, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs)—to deliver them. A new paper from Benjamin H. Friedman, Christopher A. Preble and Matt Fay encourages abandonment of the triad and skepticism about the received wisdom justifying U.S. nuclear weapons’ policies. The authors suggest that shifting to a submarine-based monad would serve U.S. deterrent needs and eventually save taxpayers roughly $20 billion a year.

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Cato Institute

Published Date

ISBN 10

1939709334

ISBN 13

9781939709332

The Power Problem

How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free

By: Christopher A. Preble

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The Power Problem

How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free

By: Christopher A. Preble

Average ratings

N/A

Write a review

Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

229

Publisher

Cornell University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0801457912

ISBN 13

9780801457913

Book's by Christopher A. Preble

The Power Problem

The Power Problem

Terrorizing Ourselves

Terrorizing Ourselves

Exiting Iraq

Exiting Iraq

Psychology of a Superpower

Psychology of a Superpower

Return to Warden's Grove

Return to Warden's Grove

The End of Overkill

The End of Overkill

The Power Problem

The Power Problem

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