Second Chance

Former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski offers a reasoned but unsparing assessment of the last three presidential administrations' foreign policy. Though they cover less than two decades, these three administrations span a vitally important turning point in world history: the period in which the United States, having emerged from the Cold War with an unprecedented degree of power and prestige, managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. The tale of these three administrations is a tale of decline: from the competent but conventional thinking of the first Bush administration, to the good intentions hobbled by self-indulgence of the Clinton administration, to the mortgaging of America's future by the suicidal statecraft" of the second Bush administration. Brzezinski concludes with a chapter on how America can regain its lost influence, if not its former dominance, in today's era of global political awakening. This scholarly yet highly opinionated book is both controversial and influential.

"No one understands the interdependence of power and principle better than Zbigniew Brzezinski." Jimmy Carter "This excellent short book... is about more than errors of the present administration's foreign policy. George W. Bush certainly comes in for searing criticism, not least over Iraq and his one-sided approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict. But what makes Mr Brzezinski's account interesting - and, in parts, intellectually demanding - is the sense it makes of the great swirl of shifting forces that set the context." Financial Times "It goes against the grain of much commentary confined within the parameters of established US thinking on the subject." Irish Times "In his compelling new book...Mr. Brzezinski not only assesses the short- and long-term fallout of the Iraq war, but also puts that grim situation in perspective... the author writes with a keen understanding of the ways in which military or political actions in one part of the world can affect developments in another region...Mr. Brzezinski's verdict on the current president's record - 'catastrophic,' he calls it - is nothing short of devastating" New York Times "Brzezinski has described the challenge of future American leadership with unusual clarity." Washington Post"

Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, is a counselor and trustee at the centre for Strategic and International Studies and a professor of American foreign policy at the School of Advanced International Studies, the Johns Hopkins University, both located in Washington, D.C. His many books include The Choice and The Grand Chessboard. He lives in Washington, D.C.