From the Cold War to the invasion of Iraq, Joseph S. Nye, Jr. has been a pivotal voice shaping America's relations with its allies and its enemies for the last 40 years.
Power in the Global Information Age brilliantly outlines American foreign policy for the new millennium by bringing together Nye's most important reflections from government and academia. Confronting both right and left, Nye outlines America's post-Cold-War role in international affairs and presents an image of an America that has accepted its responsibility to preserve peace abroad, to maintain an open world economy and to serve as a beacon of democracy and prosperity.
Collecting Nye's most important pieces on the international order as well as new essays, the book addresses the key questions that illustrate the complex interdependence of the post-9/11 world: Is America an empire in inevitable decline? Have transnational actors made the traditional "realist" power politics obsolete? What can terrorists achieve? And why do we no longer trust our government?
Provocative, thoughtful and rooted in a lifetime of thought and action in the international arena, Power in the Global Information Age is a groundbreaking assessment of the new world America faces today.
Rationalitiy and background in international relations 
For someone who was previously unfamiliar with Joseph Nye's work, this collection of essays was fascinating and eye-opening. He includes several of his essays written over the past four decades up to 2003, effectively giving the reader a brief history of the theories relating to the modern rise of globalism and transnational enterprise, just up until before the start of the Iraq war. Any mention of the war is conspicuously absent, which is somewhat disappointing and leaves the reader thirsting to learn his views on the current situations facing America.
The author makes it clear he is patriotic and devoted to the idea of American supremacy. It is clear the book is written from an American point of view. He only briefly touches on the problems of other countries and instead focuses on how "we" must view the system of the world in order to preserve it. He argues that although preserving the system benefits Americans the most, it is also necessary to avoid collapse and chaos. However, he does argue strongly for the need for multi-lateral cooperation in the use of force. It is interesting that many of his statements about the perils of a unilateral military action, such as high cost out of proportion to gain, inability to withdraw and losing credibility with world opinion, are now being witnessed in the military action in Iraq. I found his discussion particularly relevant about the inadequacies of disregarding personal morality in the relations of state (p. 116-117), even though it was written in 1985 the context of the cold war.
The author makes a careful and balanced examination of the strengths and weaknesses of the theories he studies. He tries to avoid making direct policy statements and instead presents a range of considerations that influence decisions about relations across borders and seas. He illuminates the reader with insight on other theorists strengths and limitations, such as his discussion of the classic dialectic between Neorealsim and Neoliberalism p. 31-32. Each approach emphasizes its idea of the primary concern for the world system and Nye argues that to achieve a true understanding of the world system, one must understand the effects of both.
Overall, the book is challenging to read because of its primarily academic nature, however, worth the effort to understand his analysis and arguments, especially for one who is interested in gaining a balanced perspective to the interplay between governmental and non-governmental relations in our increasingly interdependent world society.
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