| 商家名称 | 信用等级 | 购买信息 | 订购本书 |
 |
 |
Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World |  |
 |
|
Beyond the Age of Innocence: Rebuilding Trust Between America and the World | |
After publishing articles in leading American journals over two decades, Kishore Mahbubani was described as"an Asian Toynbee, preoccupied with the rise and fall of civilizations" by The Economist. Trained in philosophy in North America and Asia, and well-experienced in realpolitik as a diplomat on the world stage, Mahbubani has unusual insight into America's ever more troubled relationship with the rest of the world.
In Beyond the Age of Innocence Mahbubani reveals to us the America that Asia and the rest of the world see. We are a country that has given hope to billions by creating a society where destiny is not determined at birth. After the Second World War, we created a global order which allowed many nations to flourish. But when the Cold War ended, America made a terrible mistake. We started behaving like a normal country, ignoring the plight of others, indifferent to the consequences of our decisions on others. America was imprudent in its policy towards two large masses of mankind: the Chinese and Muslim populations. Guantanamo damaged our moral authority, but Abu Ghraib, paradoxically, may have demonstrated the accountability of American institutions. Still, disillusionment with America has spread to all corners.
To allow any lasting gap between America and the world, Mahbubani argues, would be a colossal strategic mistake for America and a huge loss to the world. But there is still time for the US to change course; and in this thought-provoking, visionary book, Mahbubani shows us how.
作者简介 Kishore Mahbubani will assume his new post as Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore in August 2004. After having lived in New York for six years, he will return to Singapore with his wife and three children.
媒体推荐 "A reasoned and sympathetic analysis of America's "benign" global power... strongly critical." -- Washington Times, March 7, 2005
"Cogent, constructive criticism and practical, well-timed advice... Americans can't ask more than that from Kishore Mahbubani." -- Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution
"Everyone who is puzzled by the global distrust of [America] should Beyond the Age of Innocence." -- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
"In this elegant book [Mahbubani] describes his hopes and fears about [America] and the new world it finds itself in." -- Fareed Zakaria, author of The Future of Freedom
"Lucid analysis of America's diminishing prestige... thoughtfully detailed." -- Publishers Weekly
"Mahbubani establishes himself as the best interpreter of the world to Americans -- and of Americans to the world." -- John Lewis Gaddis, Yale University
"Mahbubani provides an absorbing, eloquent, and insightful perspective, enriched with personal reminiscences... of American power on the world." -- Samuel Huntington, author of The Clash of Civilizations, and Who Are We
"This is a lovely book, very personal and very reflective." -- Paul Kennedy, author of the Rise and Fall of the Great Powers
"[America's] leaders would surely benefit from reading Beyond the Age of Innocence." -- Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2005
专业书评 From Publishers Weekly
The author of Can Asians Think? spent several years in the U.S. as the U.N. ambassador from Singapore, gaining firsthand experience with what he dubs "the best human society ever seen in history." Yet Mahbubani also knows that much of the rest of the world doesn't see things that way, resenting the U.S. for its "betrayal" in retreating from the geopolitical scene after the end of the Cold War - and then seemingly stomping around at will. The lucid analysis of America's diminishing prestige is underscored by Mahbubani's insistence that this isn't merely a reaction to the Bush administration and its policies, but a "tectonic shift" in international perceptions. Although his suggestion that America should stop acting merely in its own short-term interests and develop a global perspective smacks of the obvious, considerations of specific tensions in Islamic and Chinese cultures are thoughtfully detailed. The emphasis on pragmatism does lead in sometimes unsettling directions: while Mahbubani lends credence to the idea that American "abandonment" of foreign concerns led to 9/11 and the Bali nightclub bombing, he also justifies the Chinese crackdown in Tiananmen Square as a political necessity. For the most part, however, he celebrates America's generosity and the beacon of hope and prosperity it can represent for millions, and would be glad to see its luster restored.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Mahbubani's provocative previous work, Can Asians Think? (2002), pressed Westerners to reexamine their ignorance of the East and earned its diplomat-scholar author comparisons to Arnold Toynbee and even Max Weber. His latest book expounds an essentially similar thesis, packaged to draw American readers to Asia by way of post-9/11 concern about the image of the U.S. abroad. The U.S. has done more good for the world than any other civilization, Mahbubani exuberates, his credibility bolstered by years spent in New York as Singapore's ambassador to the UN. But the U.S. has harmed the world, he continues, by opportunistically shirking the expectations the rest of the world hopes it will live up to, as evidenced by Afghanistan's jilted mujahadin, but especially by fickle fiscal policies toward Thailand and Indonesia during the recent Asian financial crisis. Mahbubani's obligatory discussion of the U.S and Islam is eclipsed by his astute analysis of Chinese-American relations; less alarmist than most tellers of tales of sleeping dragons, he nevertheless credits the Chinese for patiently and profitably strategizing their way through decades of American mixed messages. Pragmatic tough love for the new century. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
