America Imperialism Ignorance

A scathing analysis of six decades of American foreign policy drawing on new archive material and research, "America and the Imperialism of Ignorance" offers a unique perspective on the recent wars in Iraq and Afganistan. Journalist and historian Andrew Alexander demonstrates how America's war-like reaction to global events since the end of World War II have been knee-jerk, unnecessary, and largely counter productive. He argues that the entire Cold War was a red herring--the United States and her puppet states setting out to counter a Russian expansionism that never truly existed.

Using newly translated Russian archive documents and material from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Alexander dissects this "shoot first" tendency in American foreign policy through US involvement and intervention in wars throughout the second part of the twentieth century and up to the present day situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. He argues that American attitudes have proved wretchedly consistent since 1945. War is no longer the last resort of diplomacy but an early option. Nothing has been learnt from Vietnam with all its parallels with Afghanistan.

Andrew Alexander is a senior journalist for the UK "Daily Mail."