This is an interesting little volume which contrasts European versus American security issues. Kagan explains why the Europeans do not view world-wide security threats in the same manner as do the Americans.

I really wish I had read this book sooner. This book feels dated to the early years of the Bush administration war drums are beginning to beat in the US and over seas. The events of the Iraq war and the debt market crisis feels like plot twists, obstructing any resolution that was proposed. While it is easy to that Mr. Kagan's analysis is right (the historical divergences between Europe and the US has left the former a internal-looking state benefiting from might of the latter) the current crises at home and at war has me wondering who ended up better off from this relationship. Kagan's prognosis that Europe should expand its own military self defense for both its own benefit and America's just does not seem feasible any more considering fiscal austerity. With American military spending compatibly shrinking as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind-down, it seems as if Europe is going to have more relative regional military power but only as the US wanes. I had mixed feelings as I read that I was bouncing between up to date analysis to data from a history textbook. The world has changed but book is still interesting to read as picture of what could have been. ( )

The cover blurbs announce a book especially favored by "realist-nationalists", intellectuals of the neo-conservative type, still there's plenty here for everyone to absorb no matter their political alignment. The book explicates the diverging strategic views of Europe and the US since the end of the Cold War and accelerating after 9/11/01, a divergence caused by fundamentally different strategic contexts and a reduced need for strategic cohesiveness. Four stars because at times I felt I was being led along a path without good reason. ( )

It's always gratifying to read a book that you agree 100% with. This essay on US transatlantic relationships and policy making is right on the money. Kagan pulls no punches in this one and his simple fact-of-the-matter rationale is hard to argue with and clear cut.
But just because he calls out Europe for exactly what they have been and are, he does it without getting nasty and schoolyardish about it. Which is refreshing in these times of O-Reilly and Heraldo.
Kagan acurately outlines why US foreign policy is what it is and why it will remain so. That is until someone else becomes king of the hill.
His parallels between Europe's historical actions and the US's current endeavors are clear and factual.
It's refreshing to read something on US policy that's not filled with the boasting and grandstanding that all of today's political books are filled with.
Kagan is the political science professor you'll wish you had in school and this book won't disappoint any reader. Whether you agree with him or not. ( )