Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Requires a Pagan Ethos
by Robert Kaplan. The last 50 or so pages of this book read not so much like the recommendations of a reporter turned modern-day Machiavelli, but like prophecy. The war with Iraq followed the game plan for the politics of the 21st century outlined in this book. Political realism demonstrates that multilateralism and diplomacy can only go so far. What the world needs is a global policeman. As Kaplan puts it: "As long as there is no Leviathan to hold sway over the countries of the world, power struggles will continue to define international politics and a global civil society will remain out of reach. Democracy and globalization are partial solutions at best" (p. 106).
Kaplan's central thesis is that the politics of the 21st century will not be guided by new principles. Rather, it will be guided by the principles of power politics and honest realism about man's nature discovered by the likes of the Roman emperors, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. This will come as a disappointment to Kantian idealists and internationalists who believe that reason and discourse can always provide solutions. Kaplan does not reject idealism; he simply means to restore the "pagan virtue" of "the strategic pursuit of self-interest" to its proper place in political thinking.
Conservatives are apt to find much to embrace in this book, while the Left is almost certain to dismiss it as more evidence of the replacement Reason and compassion with mindless, self-indulgent patriotism and power madness that it imagines fuels the Bush administration. The latter reaction would be a gross injustice to Kaplan. First, Kaplan has no use for mindless patriotism; patriotism "must survive long enough to provide the military armature for an emerging global civilization that may eventually make such patriotism obsolete" (p. 146). Second, Kaplan has no wish for the Unites States to waste an opportunity – unique in human history – not to increase human suffering through the use of power, but the decrease it.
Kaplan likens contemporary world politics to the period of warring states in ancient China where alliances formed and dissolved as each state pursued its own self interest. (It's hard not to think that Germany and France were just following Kaplan's script during the recent war.) Kaplan looks to a future where the judicious use of power will bring about the global peace sought by conservatives and liberals alike.
Kaplan (who is not a philosopher) has no extended defense of his view, but he does provide us with numerous examples from history, all copiously footnoted. The book is short (about 150 pages) and might be read by a fast reader in a few hours. For those who want an insight into the thinking of our present administration it will be invaluable. -ab
I recommend The
Geography of Nowhere to everyone. It doesn't
matter who you are or where you live; if you live in the
U.S (and most countries abroad!), this book tells you
what is wrong with your environment and how it got that
way (suburban sprawl, and the belief that cities are not
places to live). Great reading. A truly
thought-provoking, controversial book. -ab
Wholeness and the
Implicate Order by David Bohm. Another
mystical/scientific weaving of the facts of modern
physics with Indian-inspired metaphysics. But this one is
written by one of the foremost physicists of the 20th
century, who was deeply involved with the work of
Krishnamurti, one the foremost mystics of the 20th
century. General thesis will come as no surprise:
physical universe of mechanical order and precision hides
a deeper metaphysical order that includes
information-processing or "intelligence" at
every level: from the electron to human thought. Yet, the
basis for this position is quite different than most
treatments: both Bohm and Krishnamurti described
themselves as "materialists."* Repetitive and
turgid, but an inspiration to many worldwide. Bohm's
"hidden variables" interpretation of quantum
mechanics is world famous, and though most physicists
today dismiss it, it demonstrates what I consider to be a
valid philosophical point. Although his best, most philosophically
sound, critique of contemporary science is found in Causality
and Scientific Explanation (available in most
research libraries), Wholeness provides readers
with an excellent overview of Bohm's central ideas. It
includes his mature thought as well as another defense of
his hidden variables interpretation (replete with
equations). Not recommended for casual, general readers,
but highly recommended for students of history of
science, philosophy of science, East/West philosophical
interface, or relation of physical sciences to mysticism. -ab
Sugar Busters! Shopper's Guide by H.
Leighton Stweard, et. al. 
Sugar Busters!