Description
Book SynopsisPaul B. Stares proposes an innovative and timely strategy to resolve America’s foreign-policy predicament based on forging “preventive partnerships” and becoming less shortsighted and reactive.
Preventive Engagement provides a detailed and comprehensive blueprint for the United States to shape the future and reduce the potential dangers ahead.
Trade ReviewPaul Stares offers a timely, much-needed antidote to a more turbulent world: a comprehensive strategy, drawing on all aspects of American power, to prevent conflict and advance U.S. interests without draining our human or financial resources. Far from disengaging America from the world, Stares rightly advocates greater but smarter engagement. His book is a compelling argument that strength and wisdom must be flip sides of the same foreign policy coin. -- Tony Blinken, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
An erudite, elegant, extremely well-informed, and very thoughtful explanation of current American grand strategy, this book provides specific, finite, and feasible recommendations for improving the U.S. government's ability to anticipate and manage the latent risks of war. -- Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow, Brookings Institution
The liberal international order as we know it is in retreat. The rise of Russia and China, combined with America’s pullback and the uneven progress of globalization, have all shaken the foundations of our global political system—but as Paul Stares rightly points out, that doesn’t mean all is lost. If Americans and/or members of the Trump administration still harbor hope of keeping any semblance of U.S. primacy intact, Stares's book is a good place to start. -- Ian Bremmer, president and founder, Eurasia Group
National security officials often prepare to fight the last war. In
Preventive Engagement, Paul Stares argues for doing more to prevent the next one. In an era when the United States is overcommitted and tensions are multiplying, learning to anticipate and head off trouble makes eminent good sense. Readers may not agree with all of Stares’ recommendations, but his systematic, lucid, and forward-looking perspective is a valuable contribution to the broader debate on America’s role in the world. -- Stephen Walt, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University
Stares offers an optimistic—yet realistic and pragmatic—plan for using all elements of national power to better anticipate and mitigate global problems before they become unmanageable. -- Peter Feaver, Duke University
Preventive Engagement is a tonic for these times of potentially profound changes and rising anxiety about the durability of the current international order. Paul B. Stares offers a convincing, very practical long-term strategy for preventing and mitigating the kind of global conflict that could otherwise engulf the United States and its allies, with an emphasis on reducing costly military action. Stares seeks to make prevention as much a cornerstone of foreign policy as it is of medicine. -- Nancy Lindborg, president, U.S. Institute of Peace
Given the ongoing turbulence in global politics, this timely, clearly written book is recommended for national security scholars and policy makers. * Choice *
A welcome and persuasive case for a more nuanced and far-sighted foreign policy vision. * Proceedings, a journal of the U.S. Naval Institute *
Table of ContentsPreface
1. America’s Predicament
I. The Building Blocks of Preventive Engagement2. Thinking Ahead: From Warning to Anticipation
3. Acting Ahead: From Reaction to Prevention
II. A U.S. Strategy for Preventive Engagement4. Risk Reduction: The Long Game
5. Crisis Prevention: The Midterm Game
6. Conflict Mitigation: The Short Game
7. Partners in Prevention
8. Reorienting the United States
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
