Rogue Nation by Clyde Prestowitz (2003, Hardcover)

During the six months prior to the World Trade Center attack, the United States walked away from a treaty to control the world traffic in small arms, the Kyoto accords, a treaty to combat bioterrorism, and many other international agreements. After 9/11 there was a flurry of coalition building, but Europe and Asia quickly came to see the conflict in Afghanistan as an American war with Tony Blair leading cheers from the sidelines. Recent American calls to action in Iraq have only reinforced international perception that the U.S. plans to remain a solitary actor on the world stage. Despite our stated good intentions--the causes of justice and democracy--we have become the world's largest rogue nation.

The Bush administration did not invent the American tradition of unilateralism, but, Clyde Prestowitz argues, they have taken it to unprecedented heights. Rogue Nation explores the historical roots of the unilateral impulse and shows how it helps shape American foreign policy in every important area: trade and economic policy, arms control, energy, environment, drug trafficking, agriculture. Even now, when the need for multilateral action--and the danger of going it alone--has never been greater, we continue to act contrary to international law, custom, and our own best interests.

Industry Reviews
"If you want to know how the American colossus looks to the rest of the world, ROGUE NATION, by Clyde Prestowitz, is your book--an unsparing but unhysterical catalog of American behavior that has made the world see us as self-centered and hypocritical."
New York Times Book Review - Bill Keller (06/22/2003)

"Writing in a virtuous strain just this side of self-righteousness (itself a venerable American tradition), Mr. Prestowitz says that 'we need to rethink American exceptionalism,'....This is not a popular message in Washington today, but that's where it needs to be heard."
New York Times - Geoffrey Wheatcroft (06/25/2003)

"Here is a conservative economic analyst who served in the government under Reagan and describes Bush's foreign policy as not conservative at all but dangerously radical....While this dissonance may be standard fare on the left, it is a sign of real distress coming from the moderate right that shows crack in the old foreign policy consensus."
Nation - Ronald Steel (09/20/2004)