John Lewis Gaddis

Attempts to provide an answer to the question of how successful the Bush administration's grand strategy, set in nineteenth-century foundations, will be in the face of twenty-first-century national security challenges.

Surprise, Security, and the American Experience

Trevor Berrett

This discussion about the history of American preemption and unilateralism is short and to the point. I respect Gaddis's ability to discuss these huge topics from their historical roots down to their application by the Bush Administration before the Iraq War.
While the book was written very soon after the War started, it still provides a good perspective, distant enough to look at things somewhat objectively but close enough to see how it continues to play out.
I recommend this book for the historical perspective alone. The United States was built on preemption and unilateralism, a fact we don't like to admit post WWII. However, while Gaddis makes this point, he does not use that as an excuse to continue in that heritage. There are good reasons we haven't lived that way since WWII. And he does not excuse the Bush Administration, even though he does explain some of the reasons why they felt they could do what they did.

Surprise, Security, and the American Experience

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