The chronicler of US power
‘The Arab world with its own European union’
An interview with Walter Russell Mead
The Anglo-Saxon powers have been triumphant in every major global conflict for the past 300 years. This is the kind of statement that is so sweeping that you desperately want it to be wrong. But it is right. Either Britain or America — or both — emerged victorious from the war of the Spanish succession, the war of the Austrian succession, the Seven Years’ war, the French revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, the first world war, the second world war and the Cold War. Explaining why is the task that Walter Russell Mead, the Henry A. Kissinger senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, has set himself in his new book God and Gold.
Mead is a chronicler of American power and one of the most influential foreign policy thinkers of the post-9/11 era. In a slew of agenda-setting books, he has placed current US foreign policy in its historical context, arguing that there are more precedents for the direction taken by the Bush administration than most historians care to admit.
More articles from: James Forsyth | this section
Post this entry to: del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
Advertisement
A portrait of the artist as a tennis champion
Melissa KiteMelissa Kite meets Martina Navratilova, nine times Wimbledon singles champion and now pioneer of ‘tennising’ — an artistic technique that creates Jackson Pollock-style patterns
Et tu, Scott? Bush’s press aide turns on his boss
James ForsythJames Forsyth talks to Scott McClellan, former press secretary to the President, about his new book attacking the Bush administration, its methods and its deceits
The Law Lords are right to resist the government
Lord Lloyd of BerwickLord Lloyd of Berwick says that the government’s emergency legislation to overturn their lordships’ ruling on witness anonymity is part of a ‘gradual usurpation’ of our liberties
I was starstuck by David Cameron
Steven BerkoffIn the week of the Spectator Summer Party, Steven Berkoff recalls another of our celebrations at which he sought out the Tory leader and forgave his confusion of Brando and Dean
How to get stabbed: you, too, can be knifed in a public place
Rod LiddleRod Liddle says that it helps to be aged between 14 and 30, white and male. Being drunk and argumentative speeds things along. And no public policy seems to dissuade those who do the stabbing
A very English coup — and the end of our national church
Theo HobsonOn the eve of the General Synod and the Lambeth Conference, Theo Hobson says that the sleeping giant of evangelical and orthodox Anglicanism has been awoken by liberal agitation and Rowan Williams’s failed leadership. The church is damaged beyond repair
Obama and McCain offer a choice, not an echo
Irwin StelzerThis presidential race will be the first real Right v. Left contest in a long time, says Irwin Stelzer. On free trade, healthcare, tax and pariah regimes, the two men are worlds apart
My dream for Turkey, by Boris’s great-grandfather
Norman StoneNorman Stone on the dramatic life and death of Ali Kemal, one-time interior minister of Turkey and our mayoral candidate’s forebear
Milburn: What’s it all about, Gordon?
Fraser NelsonAlan Milburn gives his first interview since Brown became PM, and tells Fraser Nelson that Gordon has converted to Blairism too late. Something new is needed now
Pity the monks of Tibet who dare to hope that anyone will come to their aid
Rod LiddleRod Liddle is appalled by the appeasement of China, a country that now combines the most oppressive aspects of state Marxism with the most brutally rapacious aspects of capitalism.
Latest blog posts
sponsored links
Sky - Official Site
Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.
Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month
Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus or sky hd.
Sky - Official Site
Build your own Sky package online. Sky TV, Broadband & Talk only £16.
Sky TV, Broadband & Talk from £16 a Month
Sky TV & free broadband packages available from £16 a month. Choose from a standard free sky box, sky plus...
ROME CENTRE
PORTA METRONIA, ROME Standing high on the top of one of the seven hills of Rome- the Coelian- this unique
City Breaks. ROME and PARIS
ROME and PARIS: over 350 holiday rentals apartments listed: visit www.romanreference.com and www.parisreference.com or call +39 0648 903612.
Jewellery. RUFFS (Estd. 1904).
Goldsmiths by Design Welcome to Ruffs! You have found a company of Goldsmiths that specialises in the manufacture, amongst other
Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine
Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms
Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP
All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved
Andy Dyer, London
January 1st, 2008 8:20pmMuch of what Mead claims makes sense - until he gets to Iraq, which has been the most appalling catastrophe. Afghanistan little better, leaving the US unable to strike Iran as it wanted to - and Israel in a state of panic. Oh, well, I suppose when the Israelis all go back to America and Russia, some good will have come - but it won't be the victory he's claiming.