Mueller - The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency

The Stupidity of War

It could be said that American foreign policy since 1945 has been one long miscue; because most international threats including during the Cold War have been substantially exaggerated. The result has been agony and bloviataion, unnecessary and costly military interventions that have mostly failed. A policy of complacency and appeasement likely would have worked better. In this highly readable book, John Mueller argues with wisdom and wit rather than ideology and hyperbole that aversion to international war has had considerable consequences. There has seldom been significant danger of major war. Nuclear weapons, international institutions, and America s role as a super power have been substantially irrelevant; post-Cold War policy has been animated more by vast proclamation and half-vast execution than by the appeals of liberal hegemony; and post-9/11 concerns about international terrorism and nuclear proliferation have been overwrought and often destructive. Meanwhile, threats from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea, or from cyber technology are limited and manageable. Unlikely to charm Washington, Mueller explains how, when international war is in decline, complacency and appeasement become viable diplomatic devices and a large military is scarcely required.

John Mueller is a political scientist at Ohio State University, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Stupidity of War

American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency

John Mueller

Ohio State University and the Cato Institute

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Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781108843836

DOI : 10.1017/9781108920278

John Mueller 2021

This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2021

Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ Books Ltd, Padstow Cornwall

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name s: Mueller, John E., author.

Title : The stupidity of war : American foreign policy and the case for complacency / John Mueller.

Other titles : American foreign policy and the case for complacency

Description : Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2021. | Includes index.

Identifiers : LCCN 2020029064 (print) | LCCN 2020029065 (ebook) | ISBN 9781108843836 (hardback) | ISBN 9781108920278 (ebook)

Subjects : LCSH : United States Foreign relations 20th century. | Cold War Influence. | United States