Description
Book SynopsisWhy does the United States pursue robust military invasions to change some foreign regimes but not others? Conventional accounts focus on geopolitics or elite ideology. C. William Walldorf, Jr., argues that the politics surrounding two broad, public narrativesthe liberal narrative and the restraint narrativeoften play a vital role in shaping US decisions whether to pursue robust and forceful regime change.
Using current sociological work on cultural trauma, Walldorf explains how master narratives strengthen (and weaken), and he develops clear predictions for how and when these narratives will shape policy. To Shape Our World For Good demonstrates the importance and explanatory power of the master-narrative argument, using a sophisticated combination of methods: quantitative analysis and eight cases in the postwar period that include Korea, Vietnam, and El Salvador during the Cold War and more recent cases in Iraq and Libya. The case studies provide the environment for a
Trade Review
C. William Walldorf offers a bold and provocative theory about the causes of war in his new book.
* Perspective on Politics *
