Book by Matthew Yglesias - Heads in the Sand

Summary

Democrats have a successful foreign-policy tradition to draw on � if only they would!

With his famously sharp mind (and tongue), Matthew Yglesias refutes the two most important misconceptions about recent American foreign policy. The first is that Bush is an idealist. As Yglesias makes clear, Bush is a nationalist plain and simple, as a my-way-or-the-highway agenda takes precedence over any other supposed guiding ideology. The second is that the Democrats don't have a useful foreign-policy tradition when they do. Liberal internationalism may not be exciting or perfect, but promoting global order through international law and stable institutions has brought about a lot more peace and prosperity than imperialism, isolationism, communism or any other way of approaching the world.

So what have the Democrats been espousing instead of liberal internationalism? Not much, according to Yglesias. It's common to read articles by liberals calling for big, bold new ideas, but they don't have any and don't have any explanations for why the old ones won't work. Democrats have come unmoored from their principles on foreign policy out of political opportunism, but this path has failed to give them a decisive political advantage on security issues despite the massive failure of Bush-style nationalism.

As Heads in the Sand makes clear, Americans can no longer support reckless policies from the Republicans and should loudly shout down any Democrat who's more interested in what seems politically safe than what makes the world safer.

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Editorial Reviews

Review: Heads in the Sand (SusanG, Daily Kos)

Somewhere between the two extremes of Ron Paul/Charles Lindbergh brand of isolationism and the neoconservative dream of militant American imperialism lies the sweet spot of responsible engagement with the world, and blogger wunderkind Matthew Yglesias sets out to find it and define it in Heads in the Sand. While the subtitle faults both political parties for screwing up the journey to that magical foreign policy mecca, the book itself is forward-looking, more addressed to recently empowered (and future empowered) Democrats, even as it takes the obligatory swipes at the disasters of Republican foreign policy over the past eight years. Been there, done that ... the author moves us on to examining why the opposition party has refused to be oppositional and why, exactly, it has failed to advance a strong argument for what Yglesias calls "liberal internationalism"--the credo that served America well for decades before 9/11 came along and everyone in power seemed to lose their minds, their perspective and their sense of history. ... (Read the full review.)

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Biography

Matthew Yglesias is an Associate Editor of The Atlantic Monthly, which also hosts his popular blog. His writing has also appeared in The American Prospect, Slate, The New Republic, and the New York Times. He's been profiled as an up-and-comer in both New York and GQ magazines, and the Wall Street Journal recently called him "a ringleader-of-sorts for the D.C. blogging community."

Author Interview

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Interview with Matthew Yglesias (DCist)

Q. The book takes readers through a history of foreign policy and the liberal foreign policy strategy from as far back as World War II. How long did it take you to compile and sort through all that information? Did you ever worry that by the time the book published, the landscape was going to be a lot different than when you went into the project?

A. The research for the book didn't take as long as it might have since most of the ground I'd covered was actually stuff I'd written about previously, either as articles for the American Prospect or as things on my blog. Obviously, some additional research needed to be done and I wanted to reacquaint myself with things I'd read previously (going back to college, etc., beyond my professional work) but it was mostly a question of figuring out how I wanted to structure the argument. But of course all things considered there's a long gap from when I started working on the proposal to when the book actually came out (including months when the book was totally finished, but just not available for purchase) so you worry about things getting stale. I think it mostly worked out OK, but I believe there's a reference to Hillary Clinton as the Democratic frontrunner. ... (Read the full interview.)

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Video

Matthew Yglesias: Foreign Policy Follies

Matthew Yglesias, speaking at the New America Foundation, suggests looking past both parties to offer a set of tried-and-true approaches for renewed internationalism and U.S. engagement with the world.

Matthew Yglesias: Foreign Policy Follies

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Heads in the Sand

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Biography

Author Interview

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