The Obamians: The Struggle Inside the White House to Redefine American Power

By James Mann          Find This Book
"Our current foreign policy is overshadowed by the wars begun during the George W. Bush administration and the antiwar legacy of the George McGovern presidential campaign, with politics on the Right and the Left swinging between those two positions. The Obama administration, with the aid of an inner circle of relatively unknown advisors, has attempted to carve out space between those poles, according to foreign correspondent Mann. Obama has demonstrated a willingness to use military force (ordering the killing of Osama bin Laden) but a caution in getting too deeply involved in military campaigns (authorizing limited air strikes in support of European action in Libya). Mann offers historic perspective on U.S. foreign policy through the Cold War era, Vietnam War, Reagan presidency, and current war on terrorism. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of prominent government officials, Mann offers a behind-the-scenes look at policy deliberations in the White House, Pentagon, State Department, and CIA as foreign policy is debated in the context of domestic issues and geopolitics and U.S. policy adjusts to the reality of limited resources. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The author of the 2004 best-selling Rise of the Vulcans, which profiled President Bush's advisors, here turns his analytical power on the Obama administration in a book that will receive full promotional support on air, online, and in print."  (Booklist)