From Publishers Weekly
Mandelbaum, foreign policy professor at Johns Hopkins and a Newsday columnist, brings extensive experience in policy analysis to this examination of the political and economic ideas he believes will dominate the post-Cold War era. He expounds upon and assesses what he calls the Liberal Theory of History. Liberalism, as the author defines it, harkens back to three ideas synthesized by Woodrow Wilson at the end of WWI. First is the primacy of free markets as the world's indispensable economic engine. Second is the recognition of democracy, with its constitutional limits on government power, as the most advantageous political system. Third is an instinct for peaceful relations among nations, marked by transparency in armaments and by common security arrangements; peace has replaced war as the normal state of international affairs. These ideas, Mandelbaum asserts, are "mutually reinforcing" and have triumphed within the past 60 years over the illiberal and brutal systems of fascism and communism, continually gaining adherents. To that extent, Mandelbaum concludes, there is a basis for hope for the 21st century. Still, as he acknowledges, there are dangerous countercurrents loose in the world, and numerous flash points, such as Taiwan (the most dangerous place on earth, according to the author) and the dragon's lair of the Middle East. Policy enthusiasts will read Mandelbaum's astute and exceptionally well-written analysis with great interest and may even share his cautious optimism about liberalism's prospects.Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

One of America's leading foreign policy thinkers outlines the new power realities in the world today, and the challenges facing American leadership--his magnum opus and a major new statement in the mold of Samuel Huntington, Francis Fukuyama, Paul Kennedy, and Jacques Barzun.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, three ideas dominate the world: peace as the preferred basis for relations between and among different countries, democracy as the optimal way to organize political life, and free markets as the indispensable vehicle for the creation of wealth. While not practiced everywhere, these ideas have-for the first time in history-no serious rivals. And although the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were terrible and traumatic, they did not "change everything," as so many commentators have asserted. Instead, these events served to illuminate even more brightly the world that emerged from the end of the Cold War.

In The Ideas That Conquered the World, Michael Mandelbaum describes the uneven spread (over the past two centuries) of peace, democracy, and free markets from the wealthy and powerful countries of the world's core, where they originated, to the weaker and poorer countries of its periphery. And he assesses the prospects for these ideas in the years to come, giving particular attention to the United States, which bears the greatest responsibility for protecting and promoting them, and to Russia, China, and the Middle East, in which they are not well established and where their fate will affect the rest of the world. Drawing on history, politics, and economics, this incisive book provides a clear and original guide to the main trends of the twenty-first century, from globalization to terrorism, through the perspective of one of our era's most provocative thinkers.

Author Biography: Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University and and is a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a regular foreign affairs columnist for Newsday and the author or co-author of seven books on foreign policy.

SYNOPSIS

This is a paperbound reprint of a 2002 book about which Book News wrote: Continuing in the same tradition as Francis Fukuyama's The End of History, political science professor (and senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations) Mandelbaum continues the argument that capitalism and democracy are inextricably linked and that so-called "free markets" have emerged as indisputably triumphant in the world of contesting political and economic ideas. In exploring the political affairs of the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and China, he advances two propositions about liberal democracies that may seem surprising to observers of the current international scene: that democracies tend to conduct peaceful foreign affairs and that free markets naturally lead to democracy. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

Parameters

an excellent historical understanding of the evolution of the Western liberal ideas of free trade, democracy, and peace.

Mandelbaum captures with considerable scholarship and clarity the general underpinnings of current international relations and the possibilities for the future.

Richard Reeves

A thoughtful and powerful...analysis of the triumphant and ongoing impact of the ideas of peace, democracy and free markets.

Charlotte Observer

This is a timely and relevant analysis. Mandelbaum speaks powerfully and insightfully to our vexing and manifold challenges.

Leslie H. Gelb

The Ideas that Conquered the World is the most important work thus far on what's new and what's old about the post-Cold War world, about the forces and ideas that will do battle in the future, and it is beautifully written. It shows that history continues with interesting new wrinkles—worrisome and exciting. Read all 7 "From The Critics" >

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

The Ideas that Conquered the World is the most important work thus far on what's new and what's old about the post-Cold War world, about the forces and ideas that will do battle in the future, and it is beautifully written. It shows that history continues with interesting new wrinkles—worrisome and exciting.  — Leslie H. Gelb, President, Council on Foreign Relations

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