"Had President Bush adopted Shapiro's approach on Sept. 12, 2001, it is quite likely that he would have had more success in marginalizing adversaries."
Samantha Power, New York Times Book Review "The Bush administration's post-9/11 national security strategy has come in for tremendous criticism, but opponents have had difficulty articulating a coherent alternative. Here is one. Shapiro ... offers a brilliant ... Read moresketch of a new strategic vision that draws on Cold War-era containment ideas."
G. John Ikenberry, Foreign Affairs "It's to be hoped that Shapiro is not done
his ideas here deserve extended discussion. And as the post-Bush world starts to take form, there will be a continued need for creative thinking and the rediscovery of intellectual resources we have unwisely abandoned."
Aziz Huq, American Prospect "Shapiro makes a convincing case that so-called rogue states like North Korea and Iran can be deterred and contained even if they develop nuclear weapons."
Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Chronicle of Higher Education "Americans who want more than garage logic and uninformed rhetoric should read [this] book. Bush administration officials should read [this] book."
Roger Buoen, Minneapolis Star Tribune "Containment is both a forceful critique of current foreign policy and a prescriptive response to it... Shapiro offers a series of complicated and detailed strategies to confront global terror, including greater investment in human intelligence to methodically track and stop weapons proliferation, and to his credit, he avoids oversimplification and instead offers thorough analyses of individual situations... If only such a clear and thorough analysis existed before the last election."
Joshua J. Kearney, The Harvard Crimson "The effects of the Iraq war upon the discussion of American foreign policy have come in waves. The first wave was all about competence...Now the second wave of the discussion is under way, and its subject is not competence but ideology...Ian Shapiro's book is an important document of this second wave...Shapiro argues that the only strategy that makes sense in the aftermath of Iraq is the old strategy of containment, which he believes is firmly grounded in American history and American values. The only correct retort to Bushism is Kennanism... Containment, Shapiro contends, is our fallback, and obviously a wiser course."
James P. Rubin, The New Republic "This book is seductive in its belief that the university as endeavour can contribute to a better world. It is written with sensitivity, with reason and with the intelligent, well rounded insights of a liberal educator of great experience. The book asserts everything that I believe in."
Pamela Taylor, Educational Review "Shapiro's overall case is compelling... [A]mong the growing number of critiques of the Bush strategy, his is the most comprehensive and, arguably, the most convincing."
Lieutenant General William E Odom, Cambridge Review of International Affairs "Shapiro's style is more confrontational than contained but that is to be welcomed in this short work containing some pointed observations."
Bill Durodie, International Affairs Show Less