This is a book about bringing us together; about finding common ground so that we can address the grave challenges we face as a nation. It explores the sources of our current discord and disarray and offers a path to resolultion of the entrenched economic and political differences that are immobilizing us as a nation. The mere election of new politicians, or the creation of new political parties, whether they promise more government action, or less government interference, will not move us forward if they are products of the same broken system. And our democracy is badly broken. America Adrift offers new thinking and new approaches so that we can unite, regardless of party or polemic, to restore the promise of our democracy and ensure a brighter future for all of our citizens.

As a new president takes over in Washington, three intertwined threats imperil the world. One is internal. The others are external. The internal threat is a potent and increasingly anti-patriotic, anti-competitive, anti-meritocratic, and sky-is-the-limit federal deficit spending political current that is simultaneously diminishing and destabilizing American and global economic vitality. The two major external threats are the rising military power of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran and a global economic malaise sowing the seeds of discontent. America's role in containing the spread of new wave authoritarianism, and fostering competitiveness and global prosperity is critical, but domestic politics is preventing the Biden administration from adequately responding to these challenges. Biden's America is adrift.America is key to the survival of the free world. America is currently a beleaguered superpower. This book is possibly the first to address the politics shaping the likely course of America's new president in world affairs. It is politics, not idealist and realist abstractions, which determine international security. The world is concerned about what course Biden will take and the likely consequences. It will be the most carefully researched of such books.The book deals explicitly and extensively with issues such as spreading authoritarianism, the emerging new Cold War, global growth retardation, civic discord, economic sanctions, arms control, soft power and the deteriorating correlation of forces. The China weapons section of the book draws from the latest assessment made by the American Department of Defense. The book also includes a section on China's new technology generating innovation model and a chapter on Covid-19.

The values that made America a great and respected nation are in decline causing consequences across all segments of our society. In this passionate and deeply personal account, author John W. Zimmerman Sr. issues a call to all Americans to take up this challenge and preserve Americas promise, dream, and survival for all who follow. A roadmap and workable solutions to reclaiming our country, America Adrift-Righting the Course, is a wake-up call for young, old, and everyone in between. John Zimmermans analysis of moral relativity in our culture is beyond question. Unlike other writers who only trade in self-righteously denouncing our culture, he sensitively describes the problems and offers inspiration and practical suggestions to turn people around, so that they can develop themselves, achieve their goals, and make a lasting contribution to others. It is a book I would want to give to my children and to my retiree friends. Ted Schroder, pastor, Amelia Plantation Chapel, Amelia Island, Florida People and cultures are always confronted with change which can be represented from impending doom to opportunity waiting to be seized. In these troubled times when we all feel apprehension for what is coming next down the road, John shows us a light at the end of the tunnel. He tells it like it is, how it can be, and what it takes to get there. I highly recommend this book for everyone regardless of age or social standing. Bill Gower, president and founder, MATRIX Resources, Inc. I am donating my profits from this book to Boys and Girls Clubs of America. They do so much to develop the values of young people to make them respected and contributing adults.

The first book to tell the full story of American isolationism, from the founding era through the Trump presidency. In his Farewell Address of 1796, President George Washington admonished the young nation "to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." Isolationism thereafter became one of the most influential political trends in American history. From the founding era until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States shunned strategic commitments abroad, making only brief detours during the Spanish-American War and World War I. Amid World War II and the Cold War, Americans abandoned isolationism; they tried to run the world rather than run away from it. But isolationism is making a comeback as Americans tire of foreign entanglement. In this definitive and magisterial analysis-the first book to tell the fascinating story of isolationism across the arc of American history-Charles Kupchan explores the enduring connection between the isolationist impulse and the American experience. He also refurbishes isolationism's reputation, arguing that it constituted dangerous delusion during the 1930s, but afforded the nation clear strategic advantages during its ascent. Kupchan traces isolationism's staying power to the ideology of American exceptionalism. Strategic detachment from the outside world was to protect the nation's unique experiment in liberty, which America would then share with others through the power of example. Since 1941, the United States has taken a much more interventionist approach to changing the world. But it has overreached, prompting Americans to rediscover the allure of nonentanglement and an America First foreign policy. The United States is hardly destined to return to isolationism, yet a strategic pullback is inevitable. Americans now need to find the middle ground between doing too much and doing too little.

The shock of Donald Trump’s election caused many observers to ask whether the liberal international order—the system of institutions and norms established after World War II—was coming to an end. The victory of Joe Biden, a committed institutionalist, suggested that the liberal order would endure. Even so, important questions remained: Was Trump an aberration? Is Biden struggling in vain against irreparable changes in international politics? What does the future hold for the international order? The essays in Chaos Reconsidered answer those questions. Leading scholars assess the domestic and global effects of the Trump and Biden presidencies. The historians put the Trump years and Biden’s victory in historical context. Regional specialists evaluate U.S. diplomacy in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Others foreground topics such as global right-wing populism, the COVID-19 pandemic, racial inequality, and environmental degradation. International relations theorists reconsider the nature of international politics, pointing to deficiencies in traditional IR methods for explaining world events and Trump’s presidency in particular. Together, these experts provide a comprehensive analysis of the state of U.S. alliances and partnerships, the durability of the liberal international order, the standing and reputation of the United States as a global leader, the implications of China’s assertiveness and Russia’s aggression, and the prospects for the Biden administration and its successors.

In The Commander-in-Chief Test, Jeffrey A. Friedman offers a fresh explanation for why Americans are often frustrated by the cost and scope of US foreign policy—and how we can fix that for the future. Americans frequently criticize US foreign policy for being overly costly and excessively militaristic. With its rising defense budgets and open-ended "forever wars," US foreign policy often appears disconnected from public opinion, reflecting the views of elites and special interests rather than the attitudes of ordinary citizens. The Commander-in-Chief Test argues that this conventional wisdom underestimates the role public opinion plays in shaping foreign policy. Voters may prefer to elect leaders who share their policy views, but they prioritize selecting presidents who seem to have the right personal attributes to be an effective commander in chief. Leaders then use hawkish foreign policies as tools for showing that they are tough enough to defend America's interests on the international stage. This link between leaders' policy positions and their personal images steers US foreign policy in directions that are more hawkish than what voters actually want. Combining polling data with survey experiments and original archival research on cases from the Vietnam War through the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, Friedman demonstrates that public opinion plays a surprisingly extensive—and often problematic—role in shaping US international behavior. With the commander-in-chief test, a perennial point of debate in national elections, Friedman's insights offer important lessons on how the politics of image-making impacts foreign policy and how the public should choose its president.