At a time when relations between the United States and Europe are at their lowest ebb since World War II, this brief but cogent book is essential reading. Robert Kagan, a leading scholar of American foreign policy, forces both sides to see themselves through the eyes of the other. Europe, he argues, has moved beyond power into a self-contained world of laws, rules, and negotiation, while America operates in a “Hobbesian” world where rules and laws are unreliable and military force is often necessary.

Tracing how this state of affairs came into being over the past fifty years and fearlessly exploring its ramifications for the future, Kagan reveals the shape of the new transatlantic relationship. The result is a book that promises to be as enduringly influential as Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. ...

Most Americans believe the United States had been an isolationist power until the twentieth century. This is wrong. In a riveting and brilliantly revisionist work of history, Robert Kagan, bestselling author of Of Paradise and Power, shows how Americans have in fact steadily been increasing their global power and influence from the beginning. Driven by commercial, territorial, and idealistic ambitions, the United States has always perceived itself, and been seen by other nations, as an international force. This is a book of great importance to our understanding of our nation’s history and its role in the global community....

The grand expectation that after the Cold War the world would enter an era of international geopolitical convergence has proven wrong. In this book, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them. Description in Spanish: La idea, dominante a principios de los anos noventa, de que el mundo habia llegado a una era de concordia mundial ha resultado ser erronea: hemos entrado de pleno en un periodo de divergencia. Los expertos en ciencia politica, de acuerdo con una vision determinista de la historia, hablaban de una dialectica global que imaginaban como una batalla ideologica con sucesivas etapas que culminaria definitiva e ineludiblemente en el orden liberal y democratico internacional. En los anos inmediatamente posteriores a la Guerra Fria, el derrumbamiento del imperio comunista y la aparente llegada de la democracia a Rusia auguraban una nueva era de convergencia mundial. Los grandes adversarios de la Guerra Fria compartian repentinamente numerosos objetivos, incluido el deseo de integracion politica y economica. En ese contexto, el optimismo era comprensible. Hoy en dia, la reaparicion de grandes potencias autocraticas y la fuerza reaccionaria del radicalismo islamico han debilitado ese orden liberal, y amenazan con debilitarlo mas aun en las proximas decadas. Robert Kagan, uno de los mas notables expertos en politica mundial y autor de Poder y debilidad, demuestra que el avance hacia el liberalismo era contingente y que la gran falacia de nuestra era ha consistido en creer que ese orden respondia al simple triunfo de la mejor vision del mundo, o al desarrollo natural del progreso humano....

Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. The world remains “unipolar,” but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict, and a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics.

For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them....

Hopes for a new peaceful international order after the end of the Cold War have been dashed by sobering realities: Great powers are once again competing for honor and influence. Nation-states remain as strong as ever, as do the old, explosive forces of ambitious nationalism. The world remains “unipolar,” but international competition among the United States, Russia, China, Europe, Japan, India, and Iran raise new threats of regional conflict. Communism is dead, but a new contest between western liberalism and the great eastern autocracies of Russia and China has reinjected ideology into geopolitics. Finally, radical Islamists are waging a violent struggle against the modern secular cultures and powers that, in their view, have dominated, penetrated, and polluted their Islamic world. The grand expectation that after the Cold War the world would enter an era of international geopolitical convergence has proven wrong.

For the past few years, the liberal world has been internally divided and distracted by issues both profound and petty. Now, in The Return of History and the End of Dreams, Robert Kagan masterfully poses the most important questions facing the liberal democratic countries, challenging them to choose whether they want to shape history or let others shape it for them....