U.S. Versus Them: How a Half-Century of Conservatism Has Undermined America's Security

By J. Peter Scoblic

For nearly eight years, the American people have struggled to understand George W. Bush?s approach to the world. Many analysts, lacking a frame of reference, have simply dubbed it revolutionary. But in U.S. Vs. Them , J. Peter Scoblic provocatively argues that the best way to understand Bush?s foreign policy is to recognize that it is not radical, but rather the most recent expression of conservatism, an often misunderstood ideology whose national security instincts are rooted in America?s eighteenth-century view of itself and whose modern form has percolated for more than a half century, reaching full strength in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. Scoblic persuasively shows that the foreign policy of the American Right has been stuck for decades on a binary setting that allows it to see the world only in terms of us versus them or good versus evil. During the Cold War, that approach fostered an unwillingness to negotiate with the Soviet Union, a distrust of apolitical intelligence, and an insistence on military dominance? even as the advent of nuclear weapons rendered the traditional notion of victory in war obsolete. Today, what conservatives often present as moral clarity is in fact nothing more than a continued failure to recognize that American security depends on our ability to think outside our borders?to stop seeing the United States in unavoidable opposition to the rest of the world. Tracing the history of Cold War conservatism from its development by William F. Buckley to its manifestation in Barry Goldwater through its implementation by Ronald Reagan and its culmination in the Bush administration, Scoblic weaves an intellectual history that reveals how the Right?s belligerence, intransigence, and disinclination for diplomacy not only brought us to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, but also failed to meet the grave post-9/11 challenges posed by Iraq, Iran, North Korea, and especially by the most serious danger that looms before us: that of nuclear terrorism. What?s more, although the Bush administration is nearing its end, conservatism is certainly not, as this year?s Republican presidential candidates clearly demonstrated. U.S. Vs. Them is a revealing and sometimes alarming analysis, but in diagnosing the origins of Bush?s foreign policy, it illuminates the path to renewed American leadership in the twenty-first century.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670018821
• ISBN13: 9780670018826
• Release Date: April 2008
• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 6.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Outstanding work!

This book is a must read for anyone under fifty who wants to understand the conservative movement better. Don't be misled by the reviews. This is a book written from a liberal perspective so liberals will love it and conservatives will rate it without reading it. I recommend it particularly for readers under fifty - those of us who came of age after the Sixties -- because the book filled in a lot of gaps for me. It explained the significance of conservatives such as William F. Buckley and Barry Goldwater. These personalities were already conservative icons by the time that I started following politics. The book also explained the rise of the neo-conservative movement. The author takes a sobering look at how dangerous the conservative world-view can be. Any book that reminds readers that conservatives such as George Will once accused Ronald Reagan of appeasement for negotiating with the Soviet Union will not appeal to the Right. However, the book is a good read for the times when the Left has an opportunity to make the world a safer place through diplomacy.

Highly recommended for IR beginners and experts alike

Peter Scoblic's US vs Them provides a thorough and highly readable overview of conservative foreign policy, accessable for IR-"novices" and providing some fresh interpretations for experts out there. I find it hard to read this genre without falling asleep... and Scoblic kept me awake.

Brilliant

Scoblic's book is exactly the sort of well researched, intelligent exploration of the Bush administration's foreign policy that I have been looking for. I have always known that there is something seriously flawed about Bush's foreign policy, and the conservative approach in general (it was Reagan's talking with the Soviets as much as his spending the ended the Cold War)- but didn't have the facts to back it up. Now I do. Not only does the overall concept of this book original and insightful, but Scoblic manages to avoid the trap of too many politically oriented books- he does not veer randomly into tabloid style right wing bashing while simply sprinkling his book with facts. The book sticks coherently to it's main message and backs up its ideas strongly. Finally- the book is written with a slight fictional flare- the opening line in: "This book is about a mystery." This style, applied delicately as it is, helps to move the reader through the detailed and at times complex themes and arguments, making US VS THEM, a seriously important book, not only informative, but entertaining and engaging. I read in one review something along the lines of "if you have to read on book before the upcoming elections, make it this one." I couldn't agree more. No matter what happens in November, the Republicans have tapped into something in the American Psyche so that, no matter how badly they screw things up and are caught in scandals, they are still never far from power. Their overall policies and strategies aren't going to change dramatically. US VS THEM gives invaluable insight into why, whether you are on the left or right, the Republicans have to change their foreign policy or American will be in even more trouble than it is now.

A National Treasure

Peter Scoblic, foreign policy expert, historian, journalist and editor, reveals the mystery of the thinking that has driven U.S. foreign policy. This book is at once highly intellectual and thoroughly entertaining, regardless of where, if anywhere, one falls along the spectrum of liberal to conservative leanings. Scoblic shows us how human nature causes even the political elite to gravitate to a state of moral clarity. Everything is easier once you achieve moral clarity and it provides a very saleable message, getting results in elections. It divides the world into "us" and "them", which would be fine if we didn't have to deal with "them". The problem is that more than ever, the U.S. has to deal with other countries all over the world, especially because of economic interdependence and the fact that some of them have weapons of mass destruction. In this sense, the human nature to define what is not well understood into clear issues of good and evil is a liability. Thus, there is a need for professional diplomacy and politicians that work well with this function. Scoblic traces American diplomacy's tug of war between the intellect and the hardwired brain from the beginning of what he calls the conservative movement to what he calls it's culmination in the Bush administration. What is so amazing about Scoblic is his ability to understand America as both an insider and also as an observer. And this is the gift that he gives us in U.S. vs THEM. After reading Scoblic, you will be able to understand why apolitical intelligence has been distrusted at the highest levels of U.S. government. This is one of the biggest mysteries of our time. More than that, I think readers will be able to apply some of these principles to our own lives. That is what great scholars can do for us, and I count Scoblic as one of the best. Hopefully, he will one day come out with a documentary.