Reviews by top US foreign policy experts

Mr. Gautam Maitra's book is not only a learned interpretation of US foreign policy and its impact on the global arena during the last two hundred years but also a very interesting intellectual experiment. The reader has the chance to get an informed analysis of the nature and history of US foreign policy written by an author who, by his own account, is a "non-Westerner", who lives "far away from North America" and whose take on his topic is different from the standard interpretations popularized by the Western mass media and pundits. Even more remarkable, while avoiding the risk of being a mere echo of the standard Western rhetoric, the author also manages to circumvent the clichés associated with the non-Western, "Third-world" perspective's contrived interpretations of international affairs. The result is a truly fascinating document: a complex international relations analysis and at the same time a case study in non-orthodox thinking in foreign affairs analysis and commentary. The alert reader is surprised to discover a unique combination of original insights and reinterpretations of traditional themes in the literature. Yet, the author does not strive to be original for the sake of being original. He has an argument to make and he makes it with talent, insight, erudition, and much common sense. The assumption of his thesis is the notion that the emergence of independent America "triggered a tectonic shift in the geopolitical foundations of Europe and the reverberations and aftershocks still continue today on a global scale." We may say, writes Mr. Maitra, "that the 'American tide' generated by its founding fathers well over two centuries back through the Declaration of 4 July, 1776, and carried by the flood of subsequent events have, so far, led it into a position of world leadership. It remains to be seen where it ultimately leads America into: a permanent world leadership or its subsequent roll back into its own hemisphere." Built around this core argument are layers of interesting, original, or simply challenging observations that make Mr. Maitra's book a fascinating read for both the expert and the general public.

Paul Dragos Aligica
Hudson Institute and Mercatus Center at George Mason University

"...found the book very interesting and thus like it a lot"-------
James Rosenau, University Professor of International Affairs, The George Washington University.

"....impressed by the wide range of analysis."
Zbigniew Brzezzinski, Former National Security Adviser, USA.

"Gautam Maitra has created one of the few good foreign policy books as an outsider to the United States. He weaves an interesting set of common values in foreign policy that often go unnoticed by Americans. He addresses the issues of power and domination in a new way that I think readers will find intriguing. This is a book for all good students of American foreign policy precisely because it does come from an outsider. You may not agree with all he says, but the work does provoke thought."
M. Gene Aldridge
Board Member, New Mexico Independence Research Institute (NMRI)

Thank you very much for sending me a copy of your valuable book...Your book is quite impressive, and your organization of your materials so as to discuss successive developments in the evolution of American foreign policy is
very effective and easy to follow... More emphasis on the fundamental changes in American foreign policy which the Bush Administration has made would be desirable. I congratulate you on having written an impressive and thorough
history of American foreign policy since independence.

Robert G.Gilpin.
Professor emeritus, Politics and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

......Clearly, it is a major piece of work and a contribution to understanding the role of the United States on the international scene over the long term. Indeed, TRACING THE EAGLE'S ORBIT contains "illuminating insights" into
American foreign policies…. optimistic conclusions about the benefits of American hegemony contain much truth…..It deserves them and should stimulate a lot of discussion.
… concluding comments about the hope represented by the United States, despite the blemishes, were a useful antidote to total pessimism about recent events in Iraq, torture and rendition, attacks on civil liberties, etc. that we have seen under the Bush crowd….There is much food for thought in it.

Wendell Bell, Professor Emeritus of Sociology
Yale University.

…It is always interesting to read books about US foreign policy
written by non-Americans,…

I particularly appreciated… listing of US advantages and disadvantages. The anti-hierarchic nature of the United States and its disposition under some circumstances to provide public goods are indeed significant advantages.The self-righteousness of many Americans, and excessive reliance on pure capitalism as the solution to all economic problems, are indeed liabilities.

We differ on a number of points. In my view, the United States is not as strong economically as it was in the 1990s, as reflected in its current account and budget deficits. The low quality of US primary and secondary education is a source of concern for the long term. Furthermore, I see unilateralism as more evidently self-defeating, and I would put more emphasis on multilateral institutions, which indeed have limitations but are not bankrupt (p. 251)… overstates the directed and farsighted character of US leadership, and its consistency. Domestic politics is more important… I see no evidence for the proposition (p. 21) that the US opening to immigration in the 1960s was designed to facilitate US expansionalism and imperialism in future decades… seems to me to understestimate the extent to which the presidency of George W. Bush departs sharply from the foreign policy consensus of presidents from Truman to Clinton, including George Herbert Walker Bush.

Professor Robert Keohane, Professor of Political Science at the Woodrow
Wilson School at Princeton University