Author Description

War is the greatest problem of our time. This problem isn't the place for illusions. The dimensions of analysis include war not just as a social, economic, geographical, and as a political dynamic. It's also an epistemic and moral failure.In Politics In Our Times, I explore the way people influence others to achieve governance. War In Our Times is the second volume of this series. As von Clausewitz suggests, war is a kind of politics in that it achieves political objectives that cannot be achieved through soft power or through diplomacy. The title is also a play on the words "peace for our time" spoken by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain a year before Hitler invaded Poland. Thus, for Germany, war represented a continuation of politics while for the Allied Powers it represented a collapse of politics. War can simultaneously reflect our highest ideals and most primitive instincts as we struggle to align means to ends. This duality is reflected in how the United States organizes military power. Through the 1940s, the United States conducted its military operations through the Department of War. Today, it conducts similar operations through the Department of Defense, an Orwellian word change that changes nothing. I end this book with a chapter on how to negotiate with the North Koreans by repurposing a chapter I wrote a quarter century ago in How to Do Business With the People's Republic of China. A lifetime of following international relations combined with measured skepticism in our ability not just to understand foreign cultures but to change events is largely what informs War In Our Times.ContentsPreface Chapter One: The Myopia of War Chapter Two: Military Strategic Doctrine Chapter Three: The Bankruptcy of Neoconservatism Chapter Four: The War on Terror Chapter Five: The Middle East Chapter Six: The Military Chapter Seven: The Home Front Chapter Eight: The Ethics of War Chapter Nine: The Soviet Union's Victory Chapter Ten: How to Negotiate With the North Koreans