Browse

As a German critical social theorist associated with the Frankfurt School, Adorno is not typically studied in the context of American political thought or democratic theory. But because of his Jewish background, during the World War II era he immigrated to the United States and resided in New York and California for nearly eleven years. Drawing from neglected essays, radio addresses, and lectures originally composed in English in the United States, Adorno and Democracy: The American Years revises the traditional understanding of Adorno as a high modernist aesthete, a cultural elitist, and a notoriously inaccessible theorist. This book traces his theory of democracy as it both develops in and is practically applied to the United States. Adorno enacts and encourages a novel project for democratic leadership that operates through specifically democratic forms of education and pedagogy. We see Adorno translating and introducing his ideas to a broader public in ways that reflect a desire to understand and inform the problems and possibilities of American democracy at the level of the everyday customs and conventions of citizens. Reframing our image of Adorno in the process of drawing out the lessons of these neglected and unexplored writings, this book shows why we should begin to read him as a twentieth-century democratic theorist. Adorno’s unconventional perspectives may help revitalize our democratic politics, add conceptual rigor to democratic theory, and remind us of the normative promise that used to attach more closely to the concept of “democracy.”

Every society expresses its fundamental values and hopes in the ways it inhabits its landscapes. In this exploration, this book raises difficult questions about America's core values while illuminating the social origins of urban sprawl, dwindling wildlife habitats, and over-engineered rivers. These and other land-use crises, it contends, arise mostly because of cultural attitudes that made sense on the American frontier but now threaten the land's ecological fabric. To support and sustain healthy communities, profound adjustments will be required. The research carried out for this book lead down some unusual paths. The book probes Charles Frazier's novel Cold Mountain for insights on the healing power of nature and tests the wisdom in Wendell Berry's fiction. It challenges journalists writing about environmental issues to get beyond well-worn rhetoric and explain the true choices that Americans face. In an imaginary job advertisement, the book issues a call for a national environmental leader, identifying the skills and knowledge required, taking note of cultural obstacles, and looking critically at supposed allies. Examining recent federal elections, the book largely blames the conservation cause and its inattention to cultural issues for the diminished status of the environment as a decisive issue. The book identifies the social, historical, political, and cultural obstacles to humans' harmony with nature and advocates a new orientation, one that begins with healthy land and that better reflects our utter dependence on it.

This is a book about the necessity of political ambition for the success of American democracy. Democracies face an enduring problem encouraging, harnessing, and inevitably restraining the passions citizens have to wield political power in a civic forum. This book describes how evolving American political institutions and forms of association struggle to inspire, guide, and constrain the ambition of citizens to rule within American politics. This book sheds light on the way power seeking behavior in America ends up transforming—and often undermining—the ways democracies attempt to hold the socially and politically powerful accountable. Ambition—the desire to rule—while often seen as a threat to the stability of republican self-government, actually plays a vital, though previously underexplored, role in sustaining a healthy polity. This book explores how relationships between the mechanisms of restraint and the ambitions of specific public figures and movements enhance or undermine the possibility of self-government.

On May 23, 1957, U.S. Army Sergeant Robert Reynolds was acquitted of murdering Chinese officer Liu Ziran in Taiwan. Reynolds did not deny shooting Liu but claimed self-defense and, like all members of U.S. Military Assistance and Advisory Groups, was protected under diplomatic immunity. Reynolds's acquittal sparked a series of riots across Taiwan that became an international crisis for the Eisenhower administration and raised serious questions about the legal status of U.S. military forces positioned around the world. In American Justice in Taiwan, Stephen G. Craft provides the first comprehensive study of the causes and consequences of the Reynolds trial and the ensuing protests. After a century of unfair treaties imposed by Western nations, the Taiwanese regarded the special legal status of resident American personnel with extreme distrust. While Eisenhower and his advisers considered Taiwan to be a vital ally against China, the United States believed that the Taiwanese government had instigated the unrest to protest the verdict and demand legal jurisdiction over GIs. The events that transpired exposed the enormous difficulty of applying the U.S. military's Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) across cultures. Employing meticulous research in both Western and Chinese archives, Craft demonstrates that the riots were only anti-American in that the Taiwanese rejected the UCMJ, the affording of diplomatic immunity to occupying U.S. forces, and the military courts' interpretation of self-defense. His compelling study provides a new lens through which to examine U.S.-Taiwan relations in the 1950s, U.S. policy in Asia, and the charged and complex question of the legal status of U.S. troops on foreign soil.

In Being in the World: Dialogue and Cosmopolis, noted political theorist Fred Dallmayr explores the world’s transition from a traditional Westphalian system of states to today’s interlocking cosmopolis. Drawing upon biblical literature, as well as ancient philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and current scholars such as Heidegger, Gadamer, and Raimon Panikkar, this manuscript delves into the importance of what Dallmayr calls “ethical-political engagement.” Dallmayr asserts that traditional concepts of individual and national identity, as well as perceived relationships between the self and others, are undergoing profound change. Every town has become a cosmopolis—an international city—affecting the way that nations conceptualize the relationship between general order and political practice. Rather than lamenting current problems, he suggests ways to successfully address them, through civic education and global citizenship. He argues that what is most needed is a politics of the common good, which requires the cultivation of public ethics, open dialogue, and civic responsibility. The book engages varied philosophical traditions in an original conversation about globalization and our world today.

Chinese leaders have long been fascinated by the United States, but have often chosen to demonize America for perceived cultural and military imperialism. Especially under Communist rule, Chinese leaders have crafted and re-crafted portrayals of the United States according to the needs of their own agenda and the regime’s self-image—often seeing America as an antagonist and foil, but sometimes playing it up as a model. In China Looks at the West, Christopher A. Ford investigates what these depictions reveal about internal Chinese politics and Beijing’s ambitions in the world today. In particular, Ford emphasizes the importance of China’s “return” to global preeminence in state images, which has become an essential concept in the regime’s self-image and legitimacy. He also examines the history of Chinese intellectual engagement with America, surveying the ways in which Chinese elites have manipulated attitudes toward the United States, and revealing how leaders from Qing dynasty officials to Mao Zedong and from Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping have altered and reconstructed this narrative to support their own political agendas. Ford concludes the volume with a series of scenario-based alternatives for how China’s approaches to understanding itself and other nations may evolve in the future. Based on extensive research, including interviews with Chinese scholars and researchers, this groundbreaking study is essential reading for policymakers and readers seeking to understand current and future Sino-American relations.

Is the United States Congress dead, alive, or trapped in a moribund cycle? When confronted with controversial policy issues, members of Congress struggle to satisfy conflicting legislative, representative, and oversight duties. These competing goals, along with the pressure to satisfy local constituents, cause members of Congress to routinely cede power on a variety of policies, express regret over their loss of control, and later return to the habit of delegating their power. This pattern of institutional ambivalence undermines conventional wisdom about congressional party resurgence, the power of oversight, and the return of the so-called imperial presidency. This book examines Congress's frequent delegation of power by analyzing primary source materials such as bills, committee reports, and the Congressional Record. The book demonstrates that Congress is caught between abdication and ambition and that this ambivalence affects numerous facets of the legislative process. Explaining specific instances of post-delegation disorder, including Congress's use of new bills, obstruction, public criticism, and oversight to salvage its lost power, the book exposes the tensions surrounding Congress's roles in recent hot-button issues such as base-closing commissions, presidential trade promotion authority, and responses to the attacks of September 11. It also examines shifting public rhetoric used by members of Congress as they emphasize, in institutionally self-conscious terms, the difficulties of balancing their multiple roles.

This book is about political change as it evolved in one of America's largest and most important states during the tumultuous seventeen-year period between John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas and Ronald Reagan's ascension to the presidency in 1980. Partisan realignment is the most obvious aspect of that change. Texas was once as solidly Democratic as any state in the nation. By the end of the twentieth century, it was among the most solidly Republican. A simplistic analysis of this transformation based in large part on the perception that Texas has always been a conservative place, might suggest that—as Ronald Reagan, the preeminent icon of modern conservatism, once similarly quipped—Texas didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left Texas. However, the political changes that gripped Texas during the last decades of the twentieth century resulted from a more complex mélange. This book analyses this in detail.

The main argument is that President Obama’s foreign and national security policy reflects a coherent set of assumptions and premises constituting a Doctrine. The book argues further that the Obama Doctrine dangerously repudiates the legacy of robust internationalism that has successfully guided American foreign policy since World War II. It argues the Obama Doctrine has made matters significantly worse in the world’s three most important geopolitical regions: Europe; the Middle East, and East Asia. It advocates some version of moral democratic realism, most characteristic of the presidencies of Harry Truman, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush, as the most prudent alternative that is consistent with American ideals and self-interest.

In recent years, there has been a regression of democracy and a growing resistance to Western democratization efforts within the governments of Central Asian states. To uncover the sources of the ineffectiveness of these efforts, Democracy in Central Asia focuses on the discursive aspect of democracy promotion abroad. It examines ideas, beliefs, and perspectives advanced by the US, EU, Russia, and China in the three Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, in addition to perspectives on democratization advocated by the governments of these states. The study illuminates competing presentations of democracy and explores how these competing ideas influence societies subjected to international democratization. Based on extensive fieldwork, survey, and focus group data, the book shows that what has been promoted by the US and EU in Central Asia is culturally unsound, inconsistent, and lacking in credibility for Central Asian societies and states. Democracy promotion policies have neglected important attitudinal changes in the Central Asian population and local understandings of regional and national needs. The book's commitment to the idea of democracy and democracy promotion as open-ended conversations to which political leaders, political theorists, activists, ordinary citizens, and academics can contribute debunks the notions of democratization as a given and as somehow removed from the struggle for power and domination. Moreover, this study shows that there are multiple ways of portraying and defending the idea of democracy and alternative routes to democratization.

This book explores narratives of Germany in the United States, with a particular focus on the post–World War II period. It examines how a wide range of actors—including special interest groups and U.S. and West German policymakers—sought to deploy representations of Germany to influence public opinion and achieve their domestic and foreign policy objectives. The book analyzes cultural artifacts such as popular books, films, and television shows to reveal how narratives about the Third Reich and Cold War Germany were manufactured, contested, and co-opted as rival viewpoints competed for legitimacy. The book demonstrates the contingent nature of many of the powerful moral symbols associated with Germany in the postwar period. It uses theories drawn from public diplomacy and public memory to show how these narratives of Germany served as ways to understand not only American identity but international relations and state power.

Elected officials, and especially presidential candidates, are increasingly asked to define their relationships to special interest groups. Such special, or private, interests play a disproportionate role in politics and legislation, whether in the form of large commercial or ethnic lobbies or in the shadowy realm of backroom dealmaking. This book argues that widespread public disinterest in global affairs, a prevailing characteristic of American political culture, has given private interest groups a paramount influence over the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy. These well-organized, well-funded groups affect all levels of government, disguising their own interests as vital national interests. The book draws from numerous historical examples, dating from America's founding to the present, to examine the causes and the serious consequences of Americans' apathy toward foreign policy. This unique historical analysis of our increasingly privatized system of government offers compelling evidence that the United States is a democracy not of individuals, but of competing and powerful private groups.

This book explores the possibility of a transition from the modern paradigm—presently in a state of decay or disarray—toward new modes of life where freedom and solidarity would be reconciled, thus making possible a new flourishing of humanity on a global scale. However, it also acknowledges that antinomies of the past cannot quickly be exorcised by philosophical writings and that inherent conflicts in the modern paradigm may surface in virulent forms. Chapters 7 through 9 offer individual case studies that illustrate the difficulties involved in overcoming modern antinomies, especially the tension between freedom and solidarity. They look in particular at contemporary Protestant theology in its quest to reconcile human freedom with the Christian community of believers; Russian intellectual history in its difficult journey from traditional holism via totalitarianism to a precarious democratic freedom; and recent Indian philosophy as it tried to situate itself vis-à-vis traditional Hindu cosmology in its search for a viable democratic path in postcolonial India. The end of the book returns to the book’s central theme—the issue of a reconnection of freedom with social engagement—and stresses the need for new beginnings in this reconnection. Freedom and Solidarity ultimately offers that the solution to the possible derailments of freedom and solidarity into selfish narcissism and ethnocentric collectivism consists in the conception of solidarity as an open-ended, differentiated “public” and the conception of freedom as “authentic” guardianship.

Containing Communism was the primary goal of American foreign policy for four decades, allowing generations of political leaders to build consensus atop a universally accepted foundation. This book dissects numerous attempts, after the collapse of Communism, to devise a new grand strategy that could match containment's moral clarity and political efficacy. In the 1990s, the Bush and Clinton administrations eventually acknowledged that they could not reduce America's multifaceted post-Cold War objectives to a single fundamental precept. After 9/11, George W. Bush promoted the war on terror as America's new global mission, but this potential successor to containment lost much of its strength as conflicts in the Middle East weakened public morale. This book aims to shed new light on America's search for purpose in the politically volatile new world of the twenty-first century.

Relations between China and Russia have evolved dramatically since their first diplomatic contact, particularly during the twentieth century. During the past decade China and Russia have made efforts to strengthen bilateral ties and improve cooperation on a number of diplomatic fronts. The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation maintain exceptionally close and friendly relations, strong geopolitical and regional cooperation, and significant levels of trade. This book explores the current state of the relationship between the two powers and assesses the prospects for future cooperation and possible tensions in the new century. The chapters examine Russian and Chinese perspectives on a wide range of issues, including security, political relationships, economic interactions, and defense ties. This collection explores the energy courtship between the two nations and analyzes their interests and policies regarding Central Asia, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan.

The March 2011 disasters exposed the ineffectiveness of Japan’s political leaders, evoking three broad questions. First, why did the Kan cabinet fail to provide effective leadership in response to the disasters and why was a succession of governments unable to guide Japan out of the seemingly interminable economic malaise of the “lost decades”? The fact that Japan’s leaders possess similar powers to those of counterparts in other democratic polities suggests that a dysfunctional cabinet system is the culprit. So why is it that Japan has parliamentary democracy in form but not in practice? This is puzzling given that postwar Japan has been governed under institutional arrangements modeled after Britain’s “Westminster system,” and yet cabinet government has not set root. And, third, what gives Japan’s parliamentary cabinet system its characteristic form and function? This draws attention to the shaping effect and distributional consequences of institutions, as well as the role of critical junctures in creating strategic openings for change. And so, to understand Japan’s cabinet system, it is essential to trace its evolution. This leads backward in time from the recent challenges of “Twisted Diets” and coalition governments to institutional solutions rendered by reformers in the 1990s, the legacies of protracted single-party rule, actions taken by American occupation planners, prewar technocrats, and party leaders, and, ultimately, to a cabal that emerged in the aftermath of the Meiji Restoration. The development of the cabinet system can be seen as a proxy for Japan’s experiment with democratic governance in the longue durée.

The seven chapters in this book explore the narrative dimensions of human relations with the earth and suggest that we might not only come to understand our narratives but also to employ our ecological imagination to change agricultural practices. The book uses a Hindu agricultural narrative as a framework for discussing human behavior in the context of agricultural practice because this story confronts the dilemmas of human entitlement to the earth's bounty that all agriculturalists face. The dynamics of this story and the ritual and social context of its telling during the Hindu springtime festival of Holi offer insight into forces that shape human relations with the earth and social, particularly gendered, relations among humans. Exploring this story in its broader context reveals parallel social dynamics in Indian and U.S. agrarian thought. These parallel dynamics help explain why agriculture has received relatively little attention in environmental thought and why narratives of industrial agriculture continue to be told. This book directly challenges prevailing agricultural narratives and their relationship to practice and complements dialogue within the scientific areas of restoration ecology, emerging alternative agricultures such as agroecology, and conservation biology because these endeavors assume some level of corrective intervention within ecosystems. This cross-cultural approach helps us imagine means of food production that are sustainable and equitable for multiple human and non-human communities.

Despite the appearance of familiar faces in both Bush administrations, significant differences existed between the foreign policies of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush. The Gulf refers to these differences and argues that they can be explained by the personal beliefs and styles of each George Bush. Describing George H.W. Bush as an “enlightened” realist and George W. Bush as a “cowboy” liberal, the book begins by exploring the life experiences that contributed to each president’s belief system. Comparing and contrasting each president throughout, it focuses on each administration’s policy in the Middle East, with specific attention given to the Persian Gulf War, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Madrid Peace Conference, and the Road Map for peace. The book suggests that presidents rarely fit into a realist or liberal model and combines the two approaches to explain presidential worldviews. George H.W. Bush’s emphasis on defensive rather than offensive strategies, and international organizations rather than the power of democracy to foster peace and stability, combine to create an “enlightened” realist worldview. George W. Bush’s emphasis on offensive strategies and the power of democracy to foster peace and stability combine to create the “cowboy” liberal worldview. The book concludes by offering general and specific lessons illuminated by the cases. Suggesting that the study is more than an isolated comparison of the Bushes, the book offers examples of the importance of understanding presidential leadership styles and worldviews.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, shattered the prevalent optimism in the United States that had blossomed during the tranquil and prosperous 1990s, when democracy seemed triumphant and catastrophic wars were a relic of the past. President George W. Bush responded with a bold and controversial grand strategy for waging a preemptive Global War on Terror, which has ignited passionate debate about the purposes of American power and the nation's proper role in the world. This book offers a vigorous argument for the principles of moral democratic realism that inspired the Bush administration's policy of regime change in Iraq. The Bush Doctrine rests on two main pillars—the inadequacy of deterrence and containment strategies when dealing with terrorists and rogue regimes, and the culture of tyranny in the Middle East, which spawns aggressive secular and religious despotisms. Two key premises shape the book's case for the Bush Doctrine's conformity with moral democratic realism. The first is the fundamental purpose of American foreign policy since its inception: to ensure the integrity and vitality of a free society “founded upon the dignity and worth of the individual.” The second premise is that the cardinal virtue of prudence (the right reason about things to be done) must be the standard for determining the best practicable American grand strategy. This book provides a broader historical context for the post-September 11 American foreign policy that will transform world politics well into the future. The book connects the Bush Doctrine and current issues in American foreign policy, such as how the U.S. should deal with China, to the deeper tradition of American diplomacy. Drawing from positive lessons as well as cautionary tales from the past, the book concludes that moral democratic realism offers the most compelling framework for American grand strategy, as it expands the democratic zone of peace and minimizes the number and gravity of threats the United States faces in the modern world.

To whom should we look for moral guidance during times of global violence, scarcity, and corruption? For two millennia, Aristotle's writings have taught that the ethically “good life” is the highest purpose of human existence. This book traces the development of this notion, illuminating the connections between Greek philosophy, Judeo-Christian tradition, Eastern religions, and postindustrial social criticism. This is, however, not merely an academic exercise. The book's investigations apply directly to a number of contemporary issues: the relevance of the classics, the global spread of democracy, appropriate responses to evil, and the public role of religion in a democracy. It reinvigorates the notion of the good life as a hallmark of personal conduct, civic virtue, and political engagement, seeking to roust a complacent and self-indulgent citizenry out of a fog of modern amusements and distractions.