{"product_id":"advice-to-war-presidents-a-remedial-course-in-statecraft-9780465004836","title":"Advice to War Presidents: A Remedial Course in Statecraft","description":"\"War presidents\" are hardly exceptional in modern American history. To a greater or lesser extent, every president since Wilson has been a War President. Each has committed our country to the pursuit of peace, yet involved us in a seemingly endless series of wars -- conflicts that the American foreign policy establishment has generally made worse. The chief reason, argues Angelo Codevilla in \u003ci\u003eAdvice to War Presidents\u003c\/i\u003e, is that America's leaders have habitually imagined the world as they wished it to be rather than as it is: They acted under the assumptions that war is not a normal tool of statecraft but a curable disease, and that all the world's peoples wish to live as Americans do. As a result, our leaders have committed America to the grandest of ends while constantly subverting their own goals. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Employing many negative examples from the Bush II administration but also ranging widely over the last century, \u003ci\u003eAdvice to War Presidents\u003c\/i\u003e offers a primer on the unchanging principles of foreign policy. Codevilla explains the essentials -- focusing on realities such as diplomacy, alliances, war, economic statecraft, intelligence, and prestige, rather than on meaningless phrases like \"international community,\" \"peacekeeping\" and \"collective security.\" Not a realist, neoconservative, or a liberal internationalist, Codevilla follows an older tradition: that of historians like Thucydides, Herodotus, and Winston Churchill -- writers who analyzed international affairs without imposing false categories. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eAdvice to War Presidents\u003c\/i\u003e is an effort to talk our future presidents down from their rhetorical highs and get them to practice statecraft rather than wishful thinking, lest they give us further violence.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAngelo M. Codevilla\u003c\/b\u003e has taught political theory and international relations at Stanford, Princeton, and Georgetown University and is presently a professor of international relations at Boston University. He is the author of nine books, including \u003ci\u003eThe Character of Nations, The Arms Control Delusion\u003c\/i\u003e, and a new translation of Machiavelli's \u003ci\u003eThe Prince\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Basic Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50872649613586,"sku":"9780465004836","price":43.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_23ce8992-b6a9-4fb8-9c87-f7cf487ac0b7.jpg?v=1737904301","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/advice-to-war-presidents-a-remedial-course-in-statecraft-9780465004836","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}