National Insecurity ─ American Leadership in an Age of Fear

During the past decade America has crossed the fine line that separates national security from national insecurity. Major misadventures like the invasion of Iraq, the embrace of torture, the expansion of domestic surveillance programs, the failure to intervene earlier in Syria, the constant shifting of "red lines" in that country or Iran, the bumbling and lack of follow-through in Libya, and the failure to stand up to abuses by "allies" in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq or by rivals like Russia or Iran, have exposed how fear has warped Americans' perspectives, causing both overreaction and inaction. For over a decade, the United States has rationalized bad policies into prudent ones on an ongoing basis.

David Rothkopf, CEO and Editor-at-Large of Foreign Policy, has reached out to his extraordinary network of high level contacts conducting over 100 interviews with the players who made and influence the critical international decisions of the Bush and Obama years. He asks not only how we ended up where we are, but the bigger questions about where we should be, and how U.S. leadership can be restored.

Why does the U.S. defense and policy making apparatus remain largely as it was structured 70 years ago at the end of the Second World War? Why are we unable to evolve, to set aside outdated models, to better manage our resources, to find new ways to lead and to protect ourselves? And who are the key visionaries and actors who can help the US bring the age of insecurity to a close? In National Insecurity, Rothkopf offers a way forward.

David Rothkopf is the CEO and Editor-at-Large of Foreign Policy and President and CEO of Garten Rothkopf, an international advisory firm. He is also a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace where he chairs the Carnegie Economic Strategy Roundtable. He was formerly chief executive of Intellibridge Corporation, managing director of Kissinger Associates and U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Policy. He has taught at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. He is the author of Power, Inc., Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They are Making, now available in over two dozen editions worldwide, and Running the World: The Inside Story of the National Security Council and The Architects of American Power, hailed by the New York Times as "the definitive history of the National Security Council." He lives in Washington, D.C.