The Big Stick
The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force
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Narrated by:
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Bill Thatcher
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By:
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Eliot A. Cohen
About this listen
"Speak softly and carry a big stick", Theodore Roosevelt famously said in 1901 when the United States was emerging as a great power. It was the right sentiment, perhaps, in an age of imperial rivalry. But today many Americans doubt the utility of their global military presence, thinking it outdated, unnecessary, or even dangerous.
In The Big Stick, Eliot A. Cohen - a scholar and practitioner of international relations - disagrees. He argues that hard power remains essential for American foreign policy. While acknowledging that the United States must be careful about why, when, and how it uses force, he insists that its international role is as critical as ever, and armed force is vital to that role. Cohen explains that American leaders must learn to use hard power in new ways and for new circumstances. The rise of a well-armed China, Russia's conquest of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, and the spread of radical Islamist movements like ISIS are some of the key threats to global peace. If the United States relinquishes its position as a strong but prudent military power and fails to accept its role as the guardian of a stable world order, we run the risk of unleashing disorder, violence, and tyranny on a scale not seen since the 1930s. The United States is still, as Madeleine Albright once dubbed it, "the indispensable nation".
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By: Peter Navarro
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Hegemony or Survival
- America's Quest for Global Dominance
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Brian Jones, Noam Chomsky
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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For more than half a century, the United States has been pursuing a grand imperial strategy with the aim of staking out the globe. Our leaders have shown themselves willing, as in the Cuban missile crisis, to follow the dream of dominance no matter how high the risks. Now the Bush administration is intensifying this process, driving us toward the final frontiers of imperial control, toward a choice between the prerogatives of power and a livable Earth.
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Read and open your mind
- By Rupert on 01-15-04
By: Noam Chomsky
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America in Retreat
- The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder
- By: Bret Stephens
- Narrated by: Bret Stephens, Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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America in Retreat identifies a profound crisis on the global horizon. As Americans seek to withdraw from the world to tend to domestic problems, America’s adversaries spy opportunity. Vladimir Putin's ambitions to restore the glory of the czarist empire go effectively unchecked, as do China's attempts to expand its maritime claims in the South China Sea, as do Iran's efforts to develop nuclear capabilities.
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The Burden of American Exceptionalism
- By Harry Paget on 08-15-15
By: Bret Stephens
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The Accidental Guerrilla
- Fighting Small Wars in the Midst of a Big One
- By: David Kilcullen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 15 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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David Kilcullen is one of the world's most influential experts on counterinsurgency and modern warfare. A senior counterinsurgency advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq, his vision of war dramatically influenced America's decision to rethink its military strategy in Iraq and implement "the surge."Now, in The Accidental Guerrilla, Kilcullen provides a remarkably fresh perspective on the War on Terror.
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Not What I Expected
- By John on 12-12-10
By: David Kilcullen
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The Cold War
- A New History
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Jay Gregory, Alan Sklar
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing on new and often startling information from newly opened Soviet, Eastern European, and Chinese archives, this thrilling account explores the strategic dynamics that drove the Cold War, provides illuminating portraits of its major personalities, and offers much fresh insight into its most crucial events. Riveting, revelatory, and wise, it tells a story whose lessons it is vitally necessary to understand as America once more faces an implacable ideological enemy.
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WOW
- By Cordell eddings on 10-13-07
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All Measures Short of War
- The Contest for the Twenty-First Century and the Future of American Power
- By: Thomas J. Wright
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Russia and China are increasingly revisionist in their regions. The Middle East appears to be unraveling. And many Americans question why the United States ought to lead. What will great power competition look like in the decades ahead? What impact will geopolitics have on globalization? And what strategy should the United States pursue to succeed in an increasingly competitive world? In this book, Thomas Wright explains how major powers will compete fiercely even as they try to avoid war with each other.
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Globalist propaganda
- By Anthony Colosimo Jr on 07-10-21
By: Thomas J. Wright
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Asia's Cauldron
- The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific
- By: Robert D. Kaplan
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Over the last decade, the center of world power has been quietly shifting from Europe to Asia. With oil reserves of several billion barrels, an estimated 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and several centuries' worth of competing territorial claims, the South China Sea in particular is a simmering pot of potential conflict. The underreported military buildup in the area where the Western Pacific meets the Indian Ocean means that it will likely be a hinge point for global war and peace for the foreseeable future.
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Pending problems
- By Jean on 08-19-14
By: Robert D. Kaplan
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How Terrorism Ends
- Understanding the Decline and Demise of Terrorist Campaigns
- By: Audrey Kurth Cronin
- Narrated by: Diana Dorman
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Amid the fear following 9/11 and other recent terror attacks, it is easy to forget the most important fact about terrorist campaigns: the always come to an end - and often far more quickly than expected. Contrary to what many assume, when it comes to dealing with terrorism it may be more important to understand how it ends than how it begins.
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Halfway through
- By John S. on 07-27-12
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Reconsidering the American Way of War
- US Military Practice from the Revolution to Afghanistan
- By: Antulio Joseph Echevarria
- Narrated by: James Killavey
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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This audiobook challenges several longstanding notions about the American way of war. It examines US military practice (strategic and operational) from the War of Independence to the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan to determine what patterns, if any, existed in the way Americans have used military force. Echevarria surveys all major US wars and most every small conflict in the country's military history.
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Excellent overview of complex subject
- By Joe on 11-25-14
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Interventions
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 6 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Interventions, by Noam Chomsky, is getting new press after the Pentagon banned the book from Guantanamo Bay's prison library. Interventions is Noam Chomsky at his best. Not since his all-time best-selling title, 9/11, published in the Open Media series in 2001, have readers and listeners had a timely, short, affordable Chomsky. Unlike 9/11, Interventions is a writerly work - a series of more than 30 tightly argued essays aimed at various aspects of U.S. power and politics in the post-9/11 world. While critical of U.S. military interventions around the globe, each piece in the book is in itself an intellectual intervention.
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Chomsky on Fire
- By Susie on 01-09-13
By: Noam Chomsky
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The Sorrows of Empire
- Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Recalling the classic warnings against militarism, from George Washington's farewell address to Dwight Eisenhower's denunciation of the military-industrial complex, Johnson explores the trend of militarism that is bankrupting the United States and creating conditions for a new century of virulent blowback.
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A must read.
- By Thomas on 02-07-15
By: Chalmers Johnson
What listeners say about The Big Stick
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Dewey
- 05-27-21
Overall pretty good
The author made a lot of good points but he often doesn’t give good alternatives to the problems he identified and there are a few areas where I disagree. He feels the US military has an anti intellectual streak (I agree, and it is a serious problem) but he doesn’t offer any good ways to improve things. He does a very good job describing Chinese military strategy and its problems, but I think he overestimates the Chinese economy. He doesn’t do a good job differentiating between Al Qaida and Iranian backed groups and I think his view of the Iranian government is oversimplified. But he offers a very good alternative method fo fighting the war on terror. He also brings up a good point on the problem with the “tacticization” of GWAT strategy. He bashed the F-35, which is pretty standard, but while I agree it has problems, he doesn’t bring up the new capabilities it has and I think that it is a distracting aside that takes away from the overall quality of the book. I recommend everyone interested in contemporary military strategy read it.
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- Kyle Borne
- 09-03-17
poignant analysis
the author looks at the multitude of factors going into the use if force to achieve national end states. It's not sensational or all that controversial in my opinion. a good read to give you something to Chew on.
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- Clayton
- 09-17-17
extremely interesting
well conceived, well argued, well written and fundamentally easy to understand, even if you do not agree with all it's conclusions
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2 people found this helpful
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- Michael
- 02-02-17
Turn off the news, listen to this
This audio book is excellent for anyone who wants a thorough discussion of the problems that the United States faces and their potential solutions. The only reason that I gave it four stars is because the person reading the story had a raspy voice that was sometimes unpleasant to listen to.
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8 people found this helpful
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- GigiK74
- 08-24-21
dense writing and delivery made this a chore
I consider this would have been a very interesting subject but the density with which it was written and, in my experience, the general lack of variation in sentence structure and delivery made this one tough to work through.
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- Galvatron
- 11-27-20
Power Is a Swiss Army Knife, Not A Hammer
With the 2020 Elections as a backdrop, I pulled this down from my Audible Plus collection and was not disappointed. Having worn an uniform for most of ny adult life, I share Cohen's premise that soft power has its limits and that, while distasteful, today's geopolitical environment still needs hard power as a countermeasure to aggressive nation-states and transnational violent extremists. Discussing the near term threat of Russia, far term rise of China, and regional belligerents such as North Korea and Iran, Cohen articulates the threats that our national interests face and makes a strong case for the use of force in service to those interests. In the event of prolonged conflict in the 21st century, Cohen's strategy of modern warfare across surface, air, and cyber domains could work; however it would require a shift in mindset from both the American electorate and its leadership to taking a more flexible and patient view of war. Reading Cohen's work provides a somewhat murky, but useful, crystal ball for better understanding of 21st century warfare.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 01-11-22
A well thought out, if imperfect, take on US foreign policy
This book makes a number of assertions echoed by figures high up in the defense establishment, that US military power is a vital and needed tool of foreign policy and that its current state is inadequate in terms of funding, education, and policy/doctrinal development. He offers evidence to counter many of the usual counter arguments such as that funding such endeavors would undermine the country economically or that the application of such power is generally destructive and best left out of the political equation. In this regard he offers a well researched take, backed up by what seems to be a solid array of facts and figures. For that reason I found this book interesting and found it written in a style that kept it engaging despite what some might consider dry subject matter. His arguments do not always hold as much water as I believe he would like, as, for example, when he uses the case of the Iraq war as evidence that clearly defined goals, criteria for success, and objective evaluation of results are impossible. I believe one might make just as firm of an argument that this case is perfect evidence why those things are so indispensable. His reasoning is similarly debatable on a number of occasions, but it is nonetheless a respectable and largely logical assessment of policy that should be understood by anyone who seeks to understand the foreign and defense policy of the US.
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- Cameron Sanders
- 05-14-22
Two miles wide, 4 inches deep
Mr. Cohen makes a compelling point for American use of force as part of our foreign policy toolkit. While the chapters describing countering our adversaries was too sparse and general for my liking, other Chapters highlighting the futility of ambiguity, as well as decrying our lack of societal interest in rhetorical follow-through were extremely poignant.
I'd relisten again for those segments alone.
~U.S. Strategic Analyst
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- LOVA
- 09-25-23
Battle Hymn of A Jingoistic Neocon Still in 19thC.
This book came out in 2016, so a considerable amount of the information in this book is already outdated as of this writing. The US has changed quite a bit ever since the pandemic, and so has the rest of the world. The analysis of other countries and the geopolitical alliances is simple naivete, and the orientalist attitude that the author has toward Asia is mind-blowingly archaic. This is not to mention how much the author displayed American Exceptionalist fervor throughout the chapters is pretty laughable, considering how hard it is to implement a small change in the country (i.e. building a single transit line downtown without squandering the public funds) but somehow still thinks that it's the other countries that are stagnant and unchanging. He would make you believe the leaders of other countries are simply stupid and incompetent and got to where they're through divine rights and not through wits and would not be able to successfully enact reforms.
Most of the information outlined here for the "analysis" is not anything new; they're simply regurgitated propaganda talking points you can find on any mainstream news outlet like Fox News & CNN. If anyone came here hoping to learn more about global Realpolitik and what it means for the regular citizens of this country, they would be sorely disappointed. Judging by some of the reviews though, the humdrum of the book is working wonders as intended.
Sorry, Mr. Cohen. We neither could not have won the Korean War nor could we have pushed back and fought the PLA in their own territories that border the Soviet Union, no matter how much you try to wave the wand for an alternate reality. Also, no. Clausewitz is not a superior military strategist than Sunzi.
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