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Just Published: WILSON’S
GHOST:
Robert S. McNamara and James G. Blight Public Affairs
- June 2001 The ghost of Woodrow Wilson, whose presidency encompassed the First World War and its immediate aftermath, has haunted world leaders from his day to ours. Wilson's vision-of a collective international action to resist aggressive conflict after the carnage of the First World War-failed tragically. As a consequence, over 160 million people died in conflict during the 20th century, making it the bloodiest by far in all of human history. Will the 21st century take humanity along the same violent path? In WILSON'S GHOST: Reducing the Risk of Conflict, Killing, and Catastrophe in the 21st Century(PublicAffairs; June 2001; $24.00; 288 pages; ISBN: 1891620894), former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Brown University Professor James G. Blight hold up the Wilsonian tragedy as a historical mirror in order to illuminate our own security risks, and as a stimulus to finding ways to lower those risks. In a provocative synthesis of the pragmatic, historical, and philosophical arguments for avoiding war and achieving a sustainable peace, McNamara and Blight put forth a multi-faceted action program for realizing Wilson's dream in our new century. The plan begins with a moral imperative that establishes the reduction of human carnage as a major goal of foreign policy across the globe, and details the necessity of adopting new policies to support that goal, including:
McNamara and Blight argue that with the Cold War over, yet with the fear associated with it still vivid and alarming in our memories, now is the time for a radical approach to reducing the risk of human carnage. In WILSON'S GHOST, they demonstrate why we cannot afford to fail this time and what we need to do in order to succeed. Robert S. McNamara was president of the Ford Motor Company, secretary of defense to Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, and president of the World Bank. He is the author of In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam and co-author of Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy. He is a board member of the Pugwash Foundation. James G. Blight is
professor of international relations (research) at the Watson Institute
for International Studies at Brown University, and the author or editor
of a dozen books on the recent history of U.S. foreign policy, including
Argument Without End.
Advance Praise for WILSON'S GHOST "Robert McNamara and James
Blight have written a lucid, creative and important book about the urgent
need for addressing the linkages between interventions undertaken for
humanitarian reasons and the risk of great power conflict. It is a brilliant
first step in tying together the loose shards of international relations
in this new century." "McNamara and Blight's discussion
of avoiding nuclear catastrophe is excellent. I think it is the best
that has ever been written on the subject." "Wilson's Ghost is
a probing and passionate analysis of the steps we must take if the 21st
century is to be less murderous than the century the world has barely
survived." "Wilson's Ghost is
brilliant on the subject of nuclear danger in our post-Cold War era.
McNamara and Blight argue that while large nuclear arsenals may have
been unavoidable during the Cold War, they are no longer necessary.
They contend that a massive moral failure on this issue has taken place,
especially in the United States. Readers may not agree with all of their
radical conclusions, but no one interested in the issues of peace and
war in this century can afford to ignore them." |
