The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel Review

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The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel ReviewStephen Sniegoski, a diplomatic historian, is uniquely qualified to write about the neoconservatives' involvement in the prolonged Iraq War originating in 2003. He accurately predicted their activities and allegiance in this entanglement in 1998, three years before the acts of 9-11 and two additional years before a traumatized nation yielded to a nescient, misdirected President, his Vice President/administration, and an ostensibly compliant bi-partisan House and Senate.
The author presents a tight outline which he cogently expands in intelligible detail, maintaining that the origins of the American war on Iraq revolve around the adoption of a war agenda whose basic structure was conceived in Israel to advance Israel's interests. The pro-Israel neoconservatives and a powerful Israel lobby in the United States fervently pushed its agenda. Ironically, he extracts his most persuasive evidence from an extensive neoconservative paper trail that's been clearly recognized by a discreet cadre of vigilant Americans for years. Thus the title, "The Transparent Cabal."
Dr. Sniegoski asks the appropriate question: "Who are the neoconservatives?" He provides insightful answers on their pertinent activities since 1972, those who shaped and mentored them, their immediate family/interconnected family networks, their prominent periodical publications, their past and present leadership, non-Jewish minority members, their persistent rise to positions of political influence and authority, their embrace of Christian Zionists, and their close ties to the extremely conservative Likud Party in Israel. He reveals their tactical affiliations with key, heavily endowed influential think tanks, and a vast number of powerful Israel-centric lobbying organizations that reactively finance and nurture their continued success.
Many readers will recognize his references to writers of previous books, articles and columns -- many of Jewish heritage -- who bravely fight against well financed, mainstream media-dominant opponents and their psychological surrogates active on the Internet. These opponents perniciously engage in personal attacks and retribution, indiscriminately applying irrelevant anti-semitic labels. They persist at attempting to sway public discourse by spreading misinformation, disinformation, and mostly NO RELEVANT INFORMATION to the public.
In various places throughout the book, the author notes curious relationships with current and former elected and appointed officials. He writes about the ongoing 2008 presidential campaign in a postscript, citing past and existing direct influences on specific candidates by the neoconservatives, the Israel Lobby and its supporters.
The book concludes with a summary of the paucity of benefits compared to the predictable losses of the American people over recent years. These are the real consequences of the Israel-inspired plan to "drain the swamp" (a euphemism for destabilizing perceived enemies then establishing precarious nominal democracies) that began with our misadventure in Iraq and was to proceed with subsequent U.S. military interventions in Iran and Syria. The few meager benefits and the enormous losses to the United States are compared to the strategic advantages that the State of Israel derives directly from our five-year induced military involvement in Iraq and our concomitant departure from past, longstanding policies of diplomacy and stability in the Middle East.
Sniegoski counsels, "it is hardly controversial to propose that elites, rather than the people as a whole, determine government policies, even in democracies."
Yet this war has a supporting cast of middle Americans. Many of them were traumatized by the events of 9-11 and reactively saw an act of patriotism in supporting retaliation against a falsely perceived enemy in Iraq. It's time to reconsider false arguments preceding the Iraq War that have only been cosmetically modified until the present day. It's time to dismiss incongruous ideas formed in the cauldron of confusion after 9-11.
Given today's realities, it DOES take patriotism and courage to insist on formally normalizing an entangled, unreciprocated military alliance with an Israeli government that burdens the taxpayers of the United States, promotes angst among its people, and imperils its military forces worldwide.
Know and embrace Thomas Jefferson's ideal of 'eternal vigilance' as citizens of the United States.
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Facts in this book are reinforced in adjacent paragraphs and referenced in nearly 50 pages of notes. Readers are encouraged to read: The Neoconservative Revolution: Jewish Intellectuals and the Shaping of Public Policy by Murray Friedman -- Spy Trade: How Israel's Lobby Undermines America's Economy by Grant F. Smith -- The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal & American Foreign Policy -- The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy by Mearsheimer and Walt -- World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua -- "Israeli Surveillance of the Future Hijackers and FBI Suspects in the September 11 Attacks and Their Failure to Give Us Adequate Warning: The Need for a Public Inquiry" **a 166 PAGE LEAKED REPORT** documenting foreign espionage activities surrounding 9-11, available on the Internet (although rarely in COMPLETE UNEDITED FORM **WITH 5 EXHIBITS AND 4 MAPS**).
.The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel Overview

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American Exceptionalism and Human Rights Review

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American Exceptionalism and Human Rights ReviewIgnatieff's introductory essay is solid, but the rest of the contributions are only of interest if you already bemoan the ugly fact of American democracy obstructing the beautiful theories of international do-gooders. Look elsewhere for a serious treatment of this important subject.American Exceptionalism and Human Rights Overview

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A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East Review

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A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East ReviewTake the case of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche: just about every college freshman has heard of him, most have an opinion of his work, a few have read (or attempted to read) his books and a very small number have an informed opinion, derived from careful study and consideration of his thoughts in context. Analogously to Nietzsche, most everyone, well at least political blog readers, media pundits and avid conspiracy theorists, have heard of Kenneth Michael Pollack. Also analogous to Nietzsche, most have an opinion, but, at least based on my impressions of the majority of internet postings, few have actually read and attempted to understand his thinking. Such is the case with Pollack's latest book, "A Path Out of the Desert: a Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East".
By way of introduction, Pollack, a former CIA Middle East Iran specialist, analyst and National Security Council member in the Clinton Administration, who is now Director of Middle East Research at Brookings, was launched into media attention with the publication of, "The Threatening Storm: the Case for Invading Iraq". That book presented detailed arguments which addressed the problems presented by the Saddam Hussein regime. After careful consideration of the various alternatives, Pollack favored invading Iraq, as this option, which appeared to be the best of those available at the time when considering the level of evidence, presented the most expedient and reasonable method for dealing with the geostrategic problems posed by Saddam's government. Note that nearly one third of "Storm" detailed the likely consequences of military action and gave recommendations for managing the aftermath, namely, the efforts required to stabilize and rebuild the country after the war.
While the administration of George W. Bush chose the military option (an action some attributed to Pollack's highly influential book), it ignored his "grand strategy" for rebuilding the country. The debacle Pollack predicted resulted, along with the expected barrage of public outrage. As a result of Bush Administration actions, now unfairly associated with Pollack, he was promptly tarred with the "neoconservative" epithet by Bush detractors as well as a myriad of anti-war activists. Pollack's commentaries on CNN and elsewhere confirmed his position as an authority on the Iraq War, but simultaneously solidified the public perception of him as a "war supporter". Once that polarizing linkage was established, few troubled to read his subsequent work ("Persian Puzzle" and now, "Path"), but strident opinions on his books abound.
Worse for Pollack, his area of interest, the Middle East, is like the proverbial "tar baby": once touched, you're sort of stuck to it. Of course, the main attraction to the area from a strategic perspective is oil. Despite the fact that the greatest wealth transfer in history is now in progress (presently amounting to around $475 billion/year from oil consuming nations to oil producers) with all it's political and strategic implications, many people, including some influential policy makers, focus on the region for emotional reasons derived from religion. It is indeed an unfortunate fact that the majority of the world's petroleum resources are located in this area and that it is the nexus of 3 major religions, as this incendiary and toxic combination is causing apparently endless troubles.
With that preamble, it is hardly surprising that Pollack's newest book, "A Path Out of the Desert", has generated divisive internet traffic. A highly critical and largely uninformed review of the book was published in "The New York Times" by a commentator for "The Economist" (Max Rodenbeck) on August 22 of this year. Numerous blogs have quoted approvingly of Rodenbeck's commentary but many have done so without evident knowledge of the book itself. This is especially true of the more ideologically oriented blog writers. While this is not surprising, it is unfortunate, as Pollack clearly intended this book for the general reader, many of whom will not now take the time or effort to read the book.
"Path" is written in a highly colloquial manner. The majority of the book consists of a clear and logical synopsis of the problems facing the Muslim countries. Pollack summarizes a vast amount of data, most all of it dismal: burgeoning populations, lack of foreign investment (outside petroleum), bad educational systems, despotic governments, rising frustration from lack of opportunities, under- and unemployment...the list goes on. The causes for the hatred garnered by foreign states that have trodden upon the Middle East (US, Britain) are explained and responsibilities acknowledged and assigned. None of the information Pollack summarizes is controversial: it is all open-source and, in many cases, was published by Arabic analysts, the UN and other international organizations. Lacking an understanding of the problems of the region and their context makes informed perspectives impossible; yet, that appears to be the unfortunate state of affairs for many media and blog critics.
Note that the previous paragraph mentions specifically "Muslim" Middle Eastern problems. By virtue of his tangential association with the present Bush Administration, Pollack has been labeled as an unfettered supporter of Israel by some critics. For this reason, his concentration on the Muslim Middle East might be viewed as prejudicial by some readers. Pollack concentrates on those countries, rather than on Israel as "the problem", as Muslim nations mostly comprise that region and, more particularly, because they have what we want: that, naturally, is oil. That commodity (and maybe a dose of religion) is the source of our involvement and it is this involvement that Pollack argues is the origin of the resentment that is directed against the US.
However, this book is not arguing a particular political position. The point of Pollack's careful exposition of the vast array of problems which invest the region, almost none of which involve Israel, is that foreign interest in the region will persist, tensions will increase and an overall solution will required if the world wants access to oil and economic stability. Despite this, Pollack is careful to acknowledge that US support for that country aggravates our problems in the region, but these problems would exist for us even if Israel did not exist. Pollack further notes that our reasons for supporting Israel do not devolve from an insidious "neo-conservative", manipulative cabal, nor are they derived from Zionist machinations. Rather, they stem from the general American strategy of supporting democratic ideals, worldwide and from US strategic interests. American religious traditions (see, for example, Walter Russell Mead's recent "Foreign Affairs" article on this subject) also figure prominently into our support for Israel. While this last is an important consideration, US support for democracy and support for a stable international order are the crucial issues here. Thus, political reform is the crux of the "grand strategy" Pollack describes later in the text.
Of course, any book which deals with the modern Middle East must address the issue of terrorism, an issue that directly and indirectly involves Islam or Islamism. Pollack makes the case that terrorism is a problem, but it is not the primary problem the US faces in the Middle East. Our interest is oil and our presence is the problem. Until and unless the reliance on petroleum vanishes, the US and (increasingly) other countries will have vital and competitive interests in accessing and protecting this resource and will incur problems as a result.
Pollack attributes the xenophobia encountered in the area to the constellation of social problems endemic in the Middle East: religion certainly plays a role, but, he contends, it is neither the necessary nor the sufficient determinant of the specific problem of terrorism nor of the general resentment toward the West experienced there. The only way to massage the matter to our benefit is to devise a "grand strategy" for dealing with the plethora of problems infecting the Middle East.
Note that Pollack does not place blame for terrorism on Islam. Islam clearly does have an important role, both directly and indirectly, as it provides the ideological framework and justification for many if not most of currently active terrorist factions of interest to us. However, it does not constitute an ideological or theological straight jacket. Within the Arab world there are widely divergent interpretations of Islam, which in turn correspond to very different patterns of behavior. Anthropologists continue to argue about whether the individual's interpretation of the religion shapes the behavior of the individual, or the individual's desired pattern of behavior shapes his interpretation of religion. Clifford Geertz, in his monumental work "Islam Observed" makes a compelling case that religion (in this case,Islam) is modified by communities to suit their culture much more than the introduction of the religion reshapes the culture.
Regardless of the role of religion and it's interplay with Arabic culture, Pollack favors an "operant" approach derived from B.F. Skinner, to wit, positively reinforce the desired "behavior", negatively reinforce those you don't like and you will correct the underlying "problem". It can, and has, also been argued that large populations of young, under- and unemployed men can (and do) foment political and social disorder, so conflicts between religious and ethnic groups can often be traced to more mundane and malleable factors. Pollack suggests this is the case in the Middle East; hence, the "grand strategy" he favors deals primarily with this aspect, rather than dealing...Read more›A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for America in the Middle East Overview

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The Two Faces of American Freedom Review

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The Two Faces of American Freedom ReviewAn extraordinary book. Well-written and fascinating, this book is smart, informative, and educational, while being both clear and focused. A great book to read especially given current debate over citizenship. I throughly enjoyed it and recommend it wholeheartedly.The Two Faces of American Freedom Overview

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The National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth Review

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The National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth ReviewThe National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth provides an outstanding survey of how the U.S. makes its national security decisions, covering how the National Security Council, Departments of Defense and State, and other government branches operate and how the current system is suffering from underlying organizational dysfunction. Included are how diplomats, military officers, spies and law enforcement officials interact, and how policy and their interactions affect national security processes as a whole. Any political science collection needs this!The National Security Enterprise: Navigating the Labyrinth Overview

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The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century Review

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The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century ReviewStefan Halper's "The Beijing Consensus" summarizes how China's ('The People's Republic of China' - PRC) non-confrontational strategies are changing the world order. For decades the U.S. used its military and economic strength to leverage developing countries into economic and government reform. This worked fine, as long as we were the only game in town. The PRC, however, has now entered the arena and provides a welcome non-judgmental alternative to many struggling nations. This new approach to foreign aid, combined with admiration for China's economic success, is boosting its world influence, as well as access to energy and other natural resources. Meanwhile, China's autocratic leadership is now setting the foundation for future economic successes, and shows no sign of liberalizing; ironically, U.S. economic progress seems hindered by its vaunted democratic processes.

Some Americans have fixated on growing PRC expenditures, now second largest in the world, for modernizing its military. Halper believes this should not be a concern. China is avoiding direct confrontation with the U.S., even though it remains committed to re-unification with Taiwan and the U.S. to preservation of Taiwan's defense. The first reason to not worry is that China does not want the budgetary strain of a military arms race with the U.S., nor the foreign policy atmospherics that would result. Halper sees China's modernizing military as simply motivated via 'just-in-case' Americans get too aggressive, and centers on high-tech, close-in defensive weapons. Halper's second reason for discounting a military threat from the PRC is that Taiwan is no longer the flash-point it once was. The is due to China's confidence that re-unification is inevitable, and its willingness to wait. Meanwhile, trade between the two was $108 billion in 2007 (up 16% from 2006), over one million Taiwanese now live and work in the PRC, contacts have increased through regular mail and commercial flights between the two, and China's economic successes have made it more attractive to those living on Taiwan.

Halper, however, is very much concerned about China's growing soft power. Per Harvard's Joseph Nye, when competing for influence "It's not whose Army wins, it's whose story wins." China sees foreign aid as an important part of the contest of stories. Nations clamoring for aid during the latter half of the 20th-century had little choice other than the U.S. led World Bank and the IMF. However, both soon demonstrated a lack of ability to reliably help other nations, sometimes causing more harm than good. Reasons included their numerous ideological 'one-size-fits-all' economic requirements that assumed recipient nations had strong domestic industries, legal systems, and administrative cadres. Despite aid recipient nations often being in recession, IMF and World Bank mandates for cutting government spending worsened the economies of many aid recipients. Directed to eliminate trade barriers, recipients likely found their domestic industries overwhelmed (African food and clothing producers), while corporations in advanced nations enjoyed a windfall. IMF and World Bank-required elimination of barriers to foreign investment often brought inflation, and forced privatization frequently brought fraud as as former state sectors were taken over by political cronies (Russia). Then there was the obvious hypocrisy of our often propping up ruthless oil and anit-Communist dictators while espousing American-style democracy, ignoring Israel;s abuse of Palestinians, and subsidizing American agriculture at the same time the World Bank and IMF prevented developing countries from doing the same. Then came our own problems - the [...] crash, 9/11, our Katrina response, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ballooning trade and federal deficits, realization of an inadequate and dated infrastructure, a failing education system, crippling health care and defense costs, inability to aggressively address global warming, deindustrialization, our 2007 Wall Street collapse, and quixotic quests to play the role of world's policeman (Iran, Korea). Each served to undermine America's former soft power aura of competence and success.

Halper attributes recent U.S. economic problems, as well as its ineffectual aid to others, to an inflexible economic ideology that developed in response to problems caused by powerful American labor unions of the 1970s. Faced with both rising unemployment and inflation, Milton Friedman and the 'Chicago school' sold Republicans on the assertion that government involvement didn't solve problems, rather it made them. Deregulation (transportation), reduced regulations, free trade, privatization of state-owned enterprises, and cutting taxes became de rigueur. At first, everything came up roses - American icons such as Coke, Nike, McDonald's, and then Microsoft, sprung up all over the globe, America's 20% inflation was stopped cold, and then the Russian empire collapsed in 1991. We even deluded ourselves into thinking Americans were "special people" with an assignment to evangelize others in democracy and freedom, per God. Reality, however, was that America had reached the peak of its 'soft power,' and was headed downhill.

China, meanwhile, talked little and accomplished much, thanks to its high savings rate, emphasis on and respect for education, flexible economic ideology, protected domestic markets, enormous supply of low-cost labor, and an autocratic government that permitted no 'great debates' - instead taking fast, consistent actions and learning from nearby Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan. On the political side, rather than accept conventional wisdom that economic success required a more democratic government, and sensitive to its revolt-prone past, the PRC government instead concluded that Russia had erred in permitting democratic reforms to outrun economic progress. In addition, China also determined that Russia had suffered from an overly aggressive foreign/satellite policy, a too-large military, a lack of market mechanisms, and a failure to ensure that key industries supported national interests. Incorporating all these lessons, the PRC elected to use strong, intelligent government power to accelerate economic growth; in turn the improved economy would serve as a means of maintaining the Communist Party's power. The new economy offered considerable economic freedom, while retaining government leadership of key industries such as telecommunications, banking, metals (steel, aluminum), and transportation. Pros included fast action, and consistent direction that wasn't subject to reversal every election cycle, continual media-fed industry-led fighting over economic direction, and the ability to immediately link business decision-making with political goals (eg. banning American firms selling arms to Taiwan from selling to the mainland; sometimes slowing the use of mechanization as a means of boosting employment). Cons - local officials' corruption, very limited democracy, and incredible pollution. (China's corruption problem, however, should be evaluated in the context of American business lobbying and 'buying elections.')

Thirty years later, China has accumulated some $2.4 trillion in currency reserves (could reach $13.4 trillion by 2020), increasingly used to fund aid projects on its own and provide a path around the West. Six billion is now committed to funding a media campaign to tell China's story. Chinese 'industrial policy' decisions have also brought the economic benefits of clustering (simplifies marketing and support efforts, intensifies knowledge distribution and competition), minimized contradictions (eg. not buying G.M.'s fuel-wasting Hummer brand in an increasingly resource and pollution-conscious world), and avoided undermining key values (eg. allowing banks to promote credit cards, instead of encouraging savings). Resource-rich nations (eg. OPEC) now emulate China - using their natural resources to avoid levying taxes and the subsequent demands for democracy, while using state capitalism to develop the economy, keep the populace happy, and leverage their own foreign policy etc. goals. (The world's thirteen largest oil companies are owned and run by governments; Saudi Arabia 'invented' political use of economic resources with its 1970s Oil Embargo; Gazprom periodically threatens to freeze large areas of Europe by turning off natural gas supplies.)

The weak U.S. economy is now less able/willing to provide large foreign aid projects, and the Bank of China is 6X the size of the World Bank. Turns out, we're not missed. Halper quotes an African leader comparing the World Bank's slow (five years) contracting and often patronizing support processes, vs. China's three months and few restrictions. In turn, China has lots of new friends supporting its aims in Taiwan, Tibet, and within China itself. Ironically, while Americans have been fighting and dying in Afghanistan for nearly nine years, China is investing $3 billion to gain access to its huge copper reserves - first building roads, a $500 million power plant, a national railway, a coal mine, and eventually creating as many as 10,000 jobs for Afghans. Paradoxically, its investment is protected by American soldiers, and President Karzai is threatening to join the Taliban. Nearby, in Iran, China has $120 billion worth of oil deals - undoubtedly motivation for opposing U.S. goals there, and is busily also helping Iraq develop its oil resources.

China's recognizes that operational effectiveness in the role of offshore producer is not a long-term strategy for either maximizing profits nor full employment within China. Neither is the long-term holding of huge amounts of potentially depreciating American financial assets good for China. In response, the PRC has undertaken its own 'Buy American' campaign -...Read more›The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century Overview

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Global Democracy: The Struggle for Political and Civil Rights in the 21st Century Review

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Global Democracy: The Struggle for Political and Civil Rights in the 21st Century ReviewWelcome, global citizens! I am the author of this book and I hope it will inspire you. Here is an abstract.
Global public policies increasingly affect the lives of people around the world. From trade agreements to a new treaty on climate change, from UN sanctions against Iran's nuclear program to peacekeeping in Darfur, global public policy has become too important to bypass the democratic process.
The book's bumper-sticker version is:
"One person, one vote" for global public policy decisions!
The book develops that slogan as:
(1) A long-term vision for foreign policy to promote peace and prosperity, with a time horizon of several decades.
(2) A vision that can be achieved through incremental steps. The struggle for global democracy is already under way, and the book is relevant to today's foreign policy debates. For example, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, John McCain, has pledged to convene a League of Democracies, an idea that is fully in line with medium-term proposals laid out in the book.
(3) A vision that fits the trends of shifting power in world affairs: rising power of the "global middle class" (e.g., Brazil, Russia, India, China); pressure from the so-called "anti-globalization movement", which feels disenfranchised; and the ideological dominance of the "global upper class": global democracy is all about civil and political rights - the creed of Americans and Europeans.
The first part of the book is geared to political scientists. It challenges the "global governance" literature, which oversells the merits of "transparency, accountability and participation" to fix the "democractic deficit" of global public policy. Participatory democracy is a complement, not a substitute, of representative democracy! The book proposes a rigorous analytical framework to think of democracy in the international context.
The second part of the book is geared to practitioners of international affairs - government officials, think-tank researchers, NGO activists, etc. With numerous illustrations of current events, it argues that global democracy is both realistic and desirable to tackle the 21st century's global challenges in the areas of peace, human rights, economic development, and the environment. The book positions global democracy as an alternative foreign policy doctrine, superior to "realism", "neo-conservatism", or "internationalism."
The conclusion offers take-away lessons for five audiences: activists of the global movement for social justice, government officials of developing countries, European federalists, American neo-conservatives, and American Democrats.
Enjoy the reading!
[...].Global Democracy: The Struggle for Political and Civil Rights in the 21st Century Overview

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The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Pursuit of a New International Politics Review

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The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Pursuit of a New International Politics ReviewMark Malloch-Brown has unique personal experiences and insights-journalism, elections, political philosophy,UN, World Bank, UK cabinet, Asia, Africa, Middle East, Annan, Bush, Obama, Roosevelt, Thatcher, Wolfsensohn. This will be of interest to all concerned about the future of nations and people in our world. This book well written, 240 pages, an easy read and will make you feel more qualified to judge what is to be done after getting to know more how these organizations and people functioned. We will start with his conclusions followed by his experience and knowledge on which these conclusions are based.
What are Mark's conclusions? Mark, in a controversial very public speech, stated that since Roosevelt and Truman none of the American Presidents had given full support to the United Nations and had failed to convince the American people about the benefits the United Nations could deliver. Without a commitment of the United States and other countries to building an international framework of rules and institutions the UN is unable to carry out the tasks as foreseen by Roosevelt. This speech, not surprisingly upset the American President Bush and especially John Bolton the US representative the US representative to the UN. Bolton instead of "selling" the UN to the American public did the opposite,
Mark believes that the three main challenges we face are: Integration, Growth and Limits. Integration refers to globalization with ever increasing cross border trade, growth to the absolute increase in population, three billion more people by 2050. This growth will well before 2050 hit limits in many areas, food, energy, minerals, pollution levels, water and probable also financial meltdowns. This is likely to lead to violence. He is convinced that only a coordinated approach at the level of the world can avoid disaster. He sees as the greatest obstacle increasing nationalism in almost all countries. He says that government leaders understand the necessity of internationally binding cooperation but most voters are only interested in what the leader can deliver to them in increased prosperity and security. Mark believes that the only way forward is a contract, a binding contract between all nations.
Mark was right when he said that Roosevelt believed that binding enforceable contracts between nations were a necessity. Roosevelt had worked with this insight from 1933 to 1945 when the UN agreement was signed. Roosevelt had concluded that it would only be possible to convince the American voters to support such a contract if they felt sure it was in their direct personal interest. He was convinced; it could not be based on their compassion for other people in other countries. Only if current political leaders start to think and work the way Roosevelt did is such a new contract within reach. The most urgent problem is probably gaining control over the most integrated system in the world that is financial institutions. Again nationalism makes that almost impossible.
In summary the conclusion might be that globalization could be a savior but infected with Nationalism will become a monster almost impossible to liquidate.
Next Mark's vast experience. Mark joined the Economist as a journalist soon after graduating from Cambridge University. He observed Margaret Thatcher from up close. He was surprised and impressed what she as a conviction politician and with a strong will could accomplish. Her limit was nationalism. She did not understand sufficiently the need to build bridges with other countries in addition to the USA.
Next, the United Nations to help the Cambodian refugees in Thailand to survive and start new lives. His conclusion was that this kind of tragedy could have been avoided if the poor Cambodian peasants and the rich oligarchy had started a dialogue at an early stage. That would have required before a similar approach to prevent the Vietnam War. Next three years, the Economist Development Report, a monthly publication as founder and editor.
Next, lead partner in a consultancy group with as one its main services to introduce modern election techniques in developing countries working with Corazon Aquino in the Philippines, who won, and other candidates. His conclusion was that even after a free election in countries previously being ruled by dictators or one party democracies that the same political class would still remain in power continuing to enrich themselves rather than decreasing poverty and reducing corruption.
Next, the World Bank under the charismatic leadership of Jim Wolfsensohn. Mark found it extremely difficult to change the fundamentalist economic mindset and bureaucratic methods of the theoretically highly qualified staff. Another serious problem was unhealthy competition between the World Bank and the IMF.
Next, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) a job he really liked. Different from the World Bank the Developing Countries really liked the UNDP. They felt the UNDP was genuinely interested in understanding their problems and helping them. Mark as always was looking at the big picture. He concluded that instead of carrying out small appreciated projects that the main task of the UNDP should be to help the government to govern better, with new, different and more effective policies and institutions. One of his conclusions was that a government that does not include poverty reduction will not last. The UNDP became more effective under his leadership and the annual resources doubled to US$ 4 billion.
Next, he rejoined the United Nations serving eventually as Deputy-secretary to Kofi Annan. There is probably no better description about the internal problems of the UN; the potential of the UN and the lack of intelligent external support the UN receives as has already been described.
Finally Mark joined the UK cabinet under Gordon Brown. It surprised him that British Prime Ministers see themselves as dependent on American Presidents. An attitude that is not even appreciated by the Americans, other than President Reagan with Margaret Thatcher. Reading about these experiences you feel as if you were present when they happened.The Unfinished Global Revolution: The Pursuit of a New International Politics Overview

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