America Between the Wars From 11 9 to 9 11 The Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall & the Start of the War on Terror

On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall collapsed, taking the Cold War down with it. The next twelve years passed in a haze of self-congratulation, Republican confusion, and angst, and economic prosperityand#151;until they ended abruptly with a stunning catastrophe on September 11, 2001.

In America Between The Wars, Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier blend deep expertise with broad access to both partiesand#8217; political and policy establishments to find out howand#151;and whyand#151;America failed to recognize that when we became the sole superpower with responsibility for the worldand#8217;s oversight, we overlooked how the new world actually worked.

Kirkus Reviews

andldquo;Provocativeandhellip;. A careful explication of why things are as they are, with all those old arguments continuing to sizzle and popandmdash;suggestive and highly useful for those seeking to reshape policy in the near term.andrdquo;

The Sunday New York Times Magazine

andldquo;The problem with these narratives is that neither reflects the context of the time. As two former national security officials in the Clinton administration, Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, explain compellingly in andldquo;America Between the Wars,andrdquo; a book to be published next month, the period between the cold war and the war on terror andmdash; the 90s, roughly speaking andmdash; was a decade when foreign-policy thinkers across the ideological spectrum were groping about in darkness, trying to feel out the limits of American power and to balance the twin risks of action and inaction. During that time, the United States bounced from one unforeseen crisis to another, undertaking a military intervention every 18 months, on average andmdash; a staggering pace compared with that of the years that came before. Old ideological alliances in Washington were shattered and reformed, as pacifists lined up with conservative isolationists to battle liberal hawks and neoconservatives. New terms andmdash; andldquo;failed state,andrdquo; andldquo;humanitarian intervention,andrdquo; andldquo;ethnic cleansingandrdquo; andmdash; entered the American lexicon. Itandrsquo;s fair to say, then, that McCain did evolve in his views on when and how to use American force over the course of the decade, but itandrsquo;s misleading to separate his evolution from the larger transformation that was happening all around him.andrdquo;

Michiko Kakutani New York Times, June 17, 2008

andldquo;Mr. Chollet andhellip; and Mr. Goldgeier andhellip; have written an astute and highly informed book, lucidly mapping the forces that have been reshaping the post-cold-war world as a clearly defined superpower rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union has given way to a far more complex and chaotic set of circumstances involving terrorism, ethnic conflict and the integration of the global economyandhellip;. The authors provide an insightful assessment of the competing perspectives within the administration of George Herbert Walker Bush that have continued to inform Washington foreign policy debates through the Iraq war and the current election cycle.andhellip; [And] shrewdly analyze President Bill Clintonandrsquo;s grasp of both the upsides and downsides of globalization, which was bringing about the economic and technological integration of the world, even as it was accelerating centrifugal forces of fragmentation.andrdquo;

James Mann, author of Rise of the Vulcans

andldquo;This book will likely stand as the definitive work on the politics, people and ideas involved in the foreign-policy debates of the 1990sandhellip;. A lucidly written history, devoid of rhetoric and full of invaluable information.andrdquo;

Henry Kissinger

andldquo;Goldgeier and Chollet andhellip; offer illuminating insights into the forces that have reshaped todayandrsquo;s world.andrdquo;

Lee H. Hamilton, President and Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

andldquo;Chollet and Goldgeier have written a highly informative, engaging, and accessible account of the period between Americaandrsquo;s most recent major warsandmdash;the cold war and the war on terror. In this balanced and well-written story they argue that 9/11 did not change everything and that in order to analyze Americaandrsquo;s challenges today, one must understand the foreign policy debates and clashes of the 1990s.andrdquo;

Richard Holbrooke

andldquo;An indispensable history of the decade preceding 9/11.andrdquo;

Philip Stephens, Financial Times

andldquo;[An] excellent bookandhellip;. Studies of US foreign policy in recent years have suffered from an excess of polemic and an absence of cool analysis. This book provides welcome redress. Barack Obama, for one, should put it on his reading list.andrdquo;

Weekly Standard

andldquo;America Between the Wars is a remarkably evenhanded and serious review of U.S. security policy between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the attacks on New York and the Pentagon in the fall of 2001andhellip;. Judicious in tone, and especially insightful andhellip; this volume will likely stand as the definitive overview of that period for some time to come.andrdquo;

Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University and fellow at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy

andldquo;A deeply researched, well-written account of U.S. foreign policy in the first post-Cold War decadeandhellip;. Truly essential reading.andrdquo;

Sean Wilentz, professor of history at Princeton University and author of The Age of Reagan

andldquo;The history of diplomacy and international affairs are inseparable from the history of politics; but it is extremely difficult to do them all justice in a single book. Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier not only succeed, they succeed in styleandmdash;and they provide a persuasive and entirely original way of understanding Americaandrsquo;s role in global affairs during a pivotal dozen years.andrdquo;

Leslie H. Gelb, former New York Times columnist and president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations

andldquo;This book is a gem of current history, a scrupulously fair and highly readable piece of old-fashioned scholarship. Chollet and Goldgeier, two of the most promising young foreign policy experts, now allow us to argue about the ten-year run up to 9/11 and know what weandrsquo;re talking about.andrdquo;

Chollet and Goldgeier examine how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, and the collapse of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the modern world.

Derek Chollet is a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C.

James Goldgeier is a professor of political science at George Washington University and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.