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An overview of American military policy from the end of the Cold War to the present day.
List of contents
Introduction; 1. An end and a beginning: From cold war to Panama invasion for regime change; 2. The Persian Gulf war and its aftermath; 3. Wars other than war, wars in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo; 4. Afghanistan: Regime change and building society in the graveyard of empires; 5. The Iraq war: Changing a regime, building democracy, and fighting an insurgency; 6. America's small-footprint wars: Asia, Africa, & the Middle East; 7. America's larger forever wars - Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq; 8. A conclusion: The new era.
About the author
Thomas Henriksen is Senior Fellow Emeritus at Stanford University's Hoover Institution. His previous publications include Cycles in U.S. Foreign Policy since the Cold War (2018), America and the Rogue States (2012), and What Really Happened in Northern Ireland's Counterinsurgency (2008). During 1963-65 he was a US Army infantry officer and served on the President's Commission for White House Fellows, and U.S. Army Science Board.
Summary
The collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in American global hegemony in world affairs. In the post-Cold War period, both Democrat and Republican governments intervened, fought insurgencies, and changed regimes. In America's Wars, Thomas Henriksen explores how America tried to remake the world by militarily invading a host of nations beset with civil wars, ethnic cleansing, brutal dictators, and devastating humanitarian conditions. The immediate post-Cold War years saw the United States carrying out interventions in the name of Western-style democracy, humanitarianism, and liberal internationalism in Panama, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo. Later, the 9/11 terrorist attacks led America into larger-scale military incursions to defend itself from further assaults by al Qaeda in Afghanistan and from perceived nuclear arms in Iraq, while fighting small-footprint conflicts in Africa, Asia, and Arabia. This era is coming to an end with the resurgence of great power rivalry and rising threats from China and Russia.
Additional text
'In this excellent, balanced, and well-informed survey of US military interventions over the past thirty years, Henriksen provides a sober reminder that salafi jihadist terrorists will not end their war against the United States simply because we declare those wars to be over.' Colin Dueck, author of Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism
