What Does the World Want from America?

International Perspectives on US Foreign Policy

Edited by Alexander T.J. Lennon

$30.00 Paperback

200 pp., 6 x 9 in,

Paperback
9780262621670
Published: October 25, 2002
Publisher: The MIT Press

$30.00

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International perspectives on how the United States should wield its power as the world's sole superpower.

The United States is the only superpower in the world today. Although the media are filled with prescriptions for how Washington might best wield its power, rarely are other countries asked what role they would like the United States to play.

In What Does the World Want from America?, writers from twelve countries or regions (Brazil, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, Russia, Singapore, and South Africa) answer the question, "In an ideal world, what role would you want the United States to perform with your country and region?" Four analysts from the United States then respond, addressing the extent to which overseas opinion should be incorporated into the formulation and conduct of United States foreign policy and recommending what the United States should attempt to do in the world, particularly after the horrific attacks of September 11. What Does the World Want from America? serves as a starting point for analysis of the US role in the world and the ends to which US power might be used.

Alexander T. J. Lennon is the editor-in-chief of The Washington Quarterly, the flagship journal of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is also a fellow in the international security program at CSIS, and an adjunct professor in Georgetown University's Security Studies program. He is the editor of The Epicenter of Crisis: The New Middle East; Reshaping Rogue States (MIT Press, 2008): Preemption, Regime Change, and U.S. Policy Toward Iran, Iraq, and North Korea (MIT Press, 2004); The Battle for Hearts and Minds: Using Soft Power to Undermine Terrorist Networks (MIT Press, 2003), What Does the World Want from America? and Contemporary Nuclear Debates (MIT Press, both 2002), and the coeditor (with Michael T. Mazarr) of Toward a Nuclear Peace (St. Martin's Press, 1994).

How do we look in the eyes of others? After 9/11, the question is more crucial than ever, and What Does the World Want from America? has assembled an interesting set of answers.
Joseph S. Nye, Dean, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

American unipolar power has unsettled world politics. These insightful essays nicely illuminate the shifting global sentiments about American power and purpose.
John Ikenberry, Peter F. Krogh Professor of Geopolitics and Justice in World Affairs, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Any assessment of the U.S. role in the world should incorporate an evaluation of the role that the world wants Washington to provide. What Does the World Want from America provides a resource not found in one place anywhere else: a diverse set of global views on the desired role for the world's sole superpower. This book is an essential ingredient to help debate and determine contemporary U.S. strategy.
Kurt Campbell, Senior Vice President and Director, International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Seen 'through the looking glass', the world is not simply divided between a Hobbesian America, bent on exercising unfettered hegemony on lesser powers, and Kantian midgets, refusing to acknowledge the role of power in containing international disorder. Indeed, What Does the World Want from America demonstrates that America's leaders face high expectations to use their power positively in the world, rather than a simple anti-American coalition.
François Heisbourg, Director, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, Paris

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