American Foreign Policy After Iraq

By JOSEPH S. NYE JR.

What comes after Iraq? If President Bush's current surge of troops fails to produce "victory," what lessons will the United States draw for its future foreign policy? Will it turn inward as it did after the defeat in Vietnam three decades ago? Will it turn away from a values-oriented foreign policy of promoting democracy to a narrow realist view of its interests? Even while discussion in Washington is fixated on current events in Iraq, four books have begun to draw lessons for the next stage.