The Dispensable Nation

American Foreign Policy in Retreat

De: Vali Nasr

Narrado por: Stephen Hoye

Former State Department advisor for Afghanistan and Pakistan and best-selling author Vali Nasr delivers a sharp indictment of America's flawed foreign policy and outlines a new relationship with the Muslim world and with new players in the changing Middle East.

In this essential new book, Vali Nasr argues that the Obama administration had a chance to improve its relations with the Middle East, but instead chose to pursue its predecessor's questionable strategies there. Nasr takes listeners behind the scenes at the State Department and reveals how the new government's fear of political backlash and the specter of terrorism crippled the efforts of diplomatic giants, like Richard Holbrooke and Hillary Clinton, to boost America's foundering credibility with world leaders. Meanwhile, the true economic threats, China and Russia, were quietly expanding their influence in the region. And a second Arab Spring is brewing - not a hopeful clamor for democracy but rage at the United States for its foreign policy of drones and assassinations. Drawing on his in-depth knowledge of the Middle East and firsthand experience in diplomacy, Nasr offers a powerful reassessment of American foreign policy that directs the country away from its failing relationships in the Middle East (such as with Saudi Arabia) toward more productive, and less costly, partnerships with other foreign allies (such as Turkey). Forcefully persuasive, Vali Nasr's book is a game changer for America as it charts a course in the Muslim world, Asia, and beyond.

©2013 Vali Nasr (P)2013 Random House Audio

sensible

reading it in 2021, it's just as valid as, 2017 as the fundamental issues and even after three presidents, it still an open issue

Thorough analysis of the US role in Middle East

Valuable to any scholar seeking to understand the U.S. necessity to be present in the Middle East.

Mostly general assertions & little evidence

If you could sum up The Dispensable Nation in three words, what would they be?

I'm confident, given his experience, that the author has valuable insight, but from the Prologue to Chapters 1 and 2, there was so much condemnation with such little supporting evidence that I could not continue listening. For example, in Chapter 2 (Ch 3 in audio download) he states Karzai's brother had "ties to the drug trade...giving them the means to line their pockets while abusing the local population." But he never describes what those ties were, what methods they were using to line their pockets, or how they were abusing the local population. Had he taken more time to provide concrete information less emotional retoric, this could have been a good book, but I cannot recommend it.

What do you think your next listen will be?

A more objective review of the history of the Middle East.