Recommended: Power Rules

Despite being the sole global superpower, American administrations in recent decades have been repeatedly thwarted, frustrated, and out-maneuvered by minor powers like North Korea and Iran. Leslie Gelb, a past president of the Council of Foreign Relations and a sometime senior official in the State and Defense departments, argues that “Power rules, still, and there still are rules on how best to exercise it”. I strongly recommend his new book “Power Rules”.

Recent presidents of both parties have all too often issued empty threats and followed policies which have sharply reduced our credibility among both our friends and our foes. Recent presidents of both parties have often subscribed to unrealistic ideological views, from President Carter’s naïve trust in the essential “goodness” of other nations (painfully corrected by events in Iran) to President Bush’s naïve belief that he could change the cultures of the Middle East in a few years (painfully corrected by the insurgency in Iraq). Thus far, President Obama’s “open hand” approach has produced highly favorable press, but few visible tangible results from Russia, China, North Korea, or Iran.

Gelb argues for a realistic use of power, both “hard” power and “soft” power, and points out that neither is effective without the other – that is, there is no “soft” power unless there is at least the looming threat of “hard” power in the background, while on the other hand the use of “hard” power can often be avoided if we don’t force foes into a corner where they have nothing to lose by resisting our demands.

Gelb also explores the increasing importance in today's world of "economic power", as opposed to the more traditional military power. Economic power can also reshape the actions and policies of other nations, but it operates much more slowly than military power and has to be allowed the time to have its affect.

This is a very good book, and a good counter to all the various unrealistic “ideologies” on the political left and right which have lead us to follow so many counterproductive foreign policies in recent decades.

International relations is at best a highly complex game, in which even experts often make mistakes. But it would certainly improve our odds if our senior government officials understood some of the lessons of history.