America at the Crossroads Democracy Power & the Neoconservative Legacy

Francis Fukuyama's criticism of the Iraq war put him at odds with neoconservative friends both within and outside the Bush administration. Here he explains how, in its decision to invade Iraq, the Bush administration failed in its stewardship of American foreign policy. First, the administration wrongly made preventive war the central tenet of its foreign policy. In addition, it badly misjudged the global reaction to its exercise of "benevolent hegemony." And finally, it failed to appreciate the difficulties involved in large-scale social engineering, grossly underestimating the difficulties involved in establishing a successful democratic government in Iraq.

Fukuyama explores the contention by the Bush administration's critics that it had a neoconservative agenda that dictated its foreign policy during the president's first term. Providing a fascinating history of the varied strands of neoconservative thought since the 1930s, Fukuyama argues that the movement's legacy is a complex one that can be interpreted quite differently than it was after the end of the Cold War. Analyzing the Bush administration's miscalculations in responding to the post–September 11 challenge, Fukuyama proposes a new approach to American foreign policy through which such mistakes might be turned around — one in which the positive aspects of the neoconservative legacy are joined with a more realistic view of the way American power can be used around the world.

"Francis Fukuyama here gives the most lucid and knowledgeable account of the neoconservative vision of America's place and role in world affairs, and where it has overreached disastrously." Nathan Glazer, Professor of Sociology and Education Emeritus, Harvard University

"America at the Crossroads serves up a powerful indictment of the Bush administration's war in Iraq....[A] tough-minded and edifying book." Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"In this important and clear-sighted book, Fukuyama offers one of the best available concise histories and explanations of the neoconservative movement and its chief ideas....Fukuyama is better able than most to sketch the basic outlines of what he hopes will become a major new pole in American political discourse." Walter Russell Mead, Foreign Affairs

"Mugged by reality in Iraq, a prominent neocon breaks with his ideological allies." Benjamin Healy and Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly

"Fukuyama's America at the Crossroads is the best explanation anyone's come up with yet as to why the Bush administration has made such a mess of things in Iraq." Jacob Weisberg, Slate

"Fukuyama is always worth reading, and his new book contains ideas that I hope the non-neoconservatives of America will adopt." Paul Berman, New York Times Book Review

"For anyone interested in the neocons' history and prospects...a superb guide to this intellectual battleground." Philip Seib, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

"This is a sane and sober book, marked throughout by wise admonitions to caution and temperance." Robert Westbrook, Christian Century

"Once a neoconservative himself, the author indicts the Bush administration for its war in Iraq and for what he calls the neoconservative idea of 'benevolent hegemony.'" Denver Post

A prominent former neoconservative and author of The End of History and the Last Man explains why the Iraq war was a mistake and outlines new directions for American foreign policy.

Francis Fukuyama is Bernard L. Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy and director of the International Development Program at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. He has written widely on political and economic development, and his previous books include The End of History and the Last Man, a best seller and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Critic Award.