Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
It wasn't so long ago that many commentators were saying that previous American leaders of the Realpolitik school would never have countenanced the idea of invading of Iraq for the purpose of establishing a democracy there. There are dangers whenever U.S. policy errs to much on exporting our ideals on one hand or purely upon considerations of power politics on the other. I'm not sure there are any "perfect" solutions, as though we could somehow thread the needle and make everyone everywhere agree with what we're doing.
...Realpolitik. Some of my benchmarks include Niccolò Machiavelli's work the Prince, Alexis de Tocqueville's study on American Democracy, Walt Whitman Rostow's model - Take off Model or Development Model, John Mearsheimer's book The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, Stephen Walt's blog over at Foreign Policy, The Nixon Center's website, and of course Dr. Kissinger's amazingly verbose (it's something like 900 pages long yet it's interesting - and I hope to re-read it this year) book Diplomacy.

As to the Monday morning quarterbacking phenomenon, the Army has co-opted that human trait with the AAR...I still remember my very first one, held on a bitterly cold night somewhere high up in the Rockies....good times ....nonetheless they are worthwhile, it's at the heart of the SWJ business model, and of course our friend Socrates kicked things of with his Socratic Method of teaching...