The item The big stick : the limits of soft power & the necessity of military force, Eliot A. Cohen The big stick : the limits of soft power & the necessity of military force, Eliot A. Cohen Book Review published on: May 12, 2017 Is the United States speaking too softly and not carrying a big enough stick? 3 [1989]: 64461), as are the international laws of war, which help to reduce the potentially significant costs of conflict (see Gary M. Anderson and Adam Gifford Jr., Order out of Anarchy: The International Law of War, Cato Journal 15, no. Jessica D. Blankshain. In The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force, Eliot Cohen argues for a renewed commitment by the U.S. government not only to invest in its military armaments but also to use this substantial force around the globe proactively to promote American security and ideals. They identify eight extremely important elements of U.S. national interests and argue that geoeconomic policy is crucial to protecting and advancing these interests. He also makes the argument for a percentage-based target for U.S. defense spending, contending that 4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), wisely spent, is suitable to meet the hardpower requirements discussed throughout the book (the U.S. government currently spends about 3.3 percent of GDP on defense). George Mason University SSRN Working Paper Series . In The Big Stick, Eliot A. Cohen--a scholar and practitioner of international relations--disagrees. For example, much of international commercial law is emergent in nature (see Bruce J. Benson, The Spontaneous Evolution of Commercial Law, Southern Economic Journal 55, no. The Big Stick is an excellent book that does what its title advertises. $30.00 . Cohen’s treatment of Russia, Iran, and North Korea is short but nuanced. Military armaments are tools of brute force that can be used for both defensive and offensive purposes. Cohen argues that hard power remains essential for American foreign policy. If the prescriptions made by Cohen and Blackwill and Harris are implemented, that would grant the president even more discretion to engage in global military and economic warfare. He argues that hard power remains essential for American foreign policy. First, it calls into question the assumption that a dominant, nation-state hegemon is necessary for order. All Pages; Library Holdings; Programs; Events; Digital Collection He offers a list of six general rules for guiding future U.S. foreign policy that are extremely broad in naturefor example, Planning is important; being able to adapt is more important (pp. Associate Director, F. A. Hayek Program for Advanced Study in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. From their perspective, a rebalancing of the U.S. governments foreign-policy tools is needed in which geoeconomics is elevated to the same level as hard power and diplomacy. He carefully reminds us of the role of “accident, contingency, and randomness that pervade human affairs” and make war the province of chance. Blackwill and Harris then turn to China, providing six case studies of the Chinese governments use of geoeconomic tools (chapter 4). 2 Eliot A. Cohen and John Gooch, Military Misfortunes: the Anatomy of Failure in War (New York: Free Press, 1990, reissued 2006). Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. 3 [2006]: 53960; Christopher J. Coyne, After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy [Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2008]; and Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and George W. Downs, Intervention and Democracy, International Organization 60, no. As Robert Jervis notes, A common misconception is to see the behavior of others as more centralized, planned, and coordinated than it is. The rest of the book attempts to explain why. This is a rare book that appeals to both the expert and the dedicated citizen looking for a guide to future strategy. Basic Books, New York, 2016, 228 pages. The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force Eliot A. Cohen. What incentives and knowledge are required for success, and do the realities of politics comport with these requirements? New York, NY: Basic Book. "Speak softly and carry a big stick" Theodore Roosevelt famously said in 1901, when the United States was emerging as a great power. As this statementmakes clear, the cases formilitary armaments and economic armaments are interrelated. 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