Booklist | ‘Passage of Power,’ 4th Book of Caro’s Johnson Portrait – NYTimes.com

The series of LBJ’s remarkable life as political force of nature–part Darth Vader, part Mr. Smith–is a compelling study in leadership for anyone with the time to wade through them all.  Michiko Kakutani reviews the latest volume:

He was a man driven by a colossal ego and a genuine sense of compassion for the powerless and the poor: a man who, in the weeks and months after the assassination, was able, in Mr. Caro’s opinion, to overcome his own weaknesses and baser instincts — not for long but “long enough” — to act in a fashion that was “a triumph not only of genius but of will.”

As he did in the third volume, “Master of the Senate,” Mr. Caro finds much to admire in the legislative ends to which Johnson used power, and he employs his insights into Johnson’s personality — his insecurities, his fear of failure, his need to ingratiate himself with those above him and dominate those below — to examine the role that character plays in politics and policy making and hence in histor

via ‘Passage of Power,’ 4th Book of Caro’s Johnson Portrait – NYTimes.com.

McCain Oppo Research: Romney vulnerable on foreign policy | The Cable

This is problematic for Romney, and something that would need to be addressed in choosing a Veep–much as Obama has done in tapping Biden, as well as Hillary.

“Romney has no foreign policy experience,” reads the first bullet point in the foreign-policy section of the 200-page McCain opposition research file, posted Tuesday night by Buzzfeed. A former senior McCain campaign staffer confirmed its authenticity to The Cable. Twenty pages of the document are devoted to foreign-policy-related quotes and anecdotes the McCain campaign thought could be damaging to Romney during their 2008 primary battle.

via McCain campaign in ‘08: Romney vulnerable on foreign policy | The Cable.

Booklist | Drezner’s Reading List for U.S. Politicians

In the throes of the U.S. Republican Primary to recognize John Huntsman’s exit today  take a look at these suggestions from regular FP.com blogger Dan Drezner for informing your inner pol:

1)  Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence.  Comment:  An excellent introduction to the myriad strains of thought that have permeated American foreign policy over the past two and a half centuries.  International relations theorists might quibble with Mead’s different intellectual traditions, but I suspect politicians will immediately “get” them.

2)  David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (for Democrats); James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans (for Republicans).  Comment:  Each side should read about their greatest foreign policy mistake of the past century to appreciate that even the best and smartest advisors in the world will not necessarily translate into wise foreign policies.

3)  Richard Neustadt and Earnest May, Thinking in Time.  Comment:  Politicians like to claim that they don’t cotton to abstract academic theories of the world, that they rely on things like “common sense”  and “folk wisdom.”  …  Neustadt and May’s book does an excellent job of delineating the various ways that the history can be abused in presidential decision-making.

via My three must-read U.S. foreign policy books for aspring politicians | Daniel W. Drezner.

Watch for my year in review list of best books for thinking about diplomacy and international affairs.  (I’m up to my neck in booklists, another great things about year end and the start of a new semester.)

The Greatness of Ron Paul via Robert Wright, Peter Beinart

What’s the nicest thing you can say about Ron Paul?  How about this–he adds a missing “moral dimension” to the Republican debate on foreign policy.

A favorite Paul pedagogical device is to analogize foreign situations to American ones. A campaign ad promoted by a Paul-supporting super PAC begins by asking us to imagine Russian or Chinese troops in Texas. The point is that this is how our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan look to locals.

I’ve long thought that the biggest single problem in the world is the failure of “moral imagination”–the inability or unwillingness of people to see things from the perspective of people in circumstances different from their own. Especially incendiary is the failure to extend moral imagination across national, religious, or ethnic borders.

If a lack of moral imagination is indeed the core problem with Americas foreign policy, and Ron Paul is unique among presidential candidates in trying to fight it, I think you have to say hes doing something great, notwithstanding the many non-great and opposite-of-great things about him and notwithstanding the fact that he has in the past failed to extend moral imagination across all possible borders.

via The Greatness of Ron Paul – Robert Wright – Politics – The Atlantic.

Paul illustrates the split between a long-forgotten isolationist wing of the Republican party, which of late, has been overshadowed by the more recent divide between global interventionists a la Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and the realists of Bush the Elder/Baker/Scowcroft.

In truth, the modern Republican Party has always been a house divided, pulled between its desire to crusade against evil abroad and its fear that that crusade will empower the evil of big government at home. In 2012, I suspect, Ron Paul will expose that division in a way it has not been exposed in a long time. And Republicans will not soon paper it over again.

via Peter Beinart: How Ron Paul Will Change the GOP in 2012 – The Daily Beast.

In this short piece, Beinart notes that Ron Paul may aspire to the new Calvin Coolidge, who observed in 1925, “The people have had all the war, all the taxation, and all the military service they want.”

Why Havel Matters

As the WSJ writes, “A man for all seasons on behalf of liberty,” Havel inspired the world.  The Czech leader also mused that it was harder to put in place his philosophy as his country’s political leader than it was to develop his ideas.  (Interesting that most critics find his art sub-par.)   David Remnick assembles this most worthy reading list that conveys the important issues, thinkers, and ideas of the era.

[A] top-ten list, the first entry being Havel’s greatest hits, and the rest books and writers whom Havel admired—contemporaries or near contemporaries who lived in the same region and under similar regimes.

via News Desk: Reading List: Havel and Beyond : The New Yorker.

And thanks to CFR for assembling Havel’s own “lasting words,”  among which should be the memory of how Havel encouraged Americans to mitigate their isolationist tendencies in the face of the Cold War’s end.  The “Declaration of America’s Interdependence” is, for me, one of Havel’s most important contributions as it updates the post-WWII consensus embodied in our increasingly outdated international organizations.

He grasped, as Max Fisher eloquently observed in the Atlantic, lessons that we need today, including  personal and global responsibility in the face of multiple threats, the importance of a climate freedom and guarantees of peace, and the need to change human nature–a ‘global revolution of human consciousness’ as Fisher quotes Havel’s 1990 statement before the U.S. Congress.

Havel’s track record as a political leader was mixed, which should continue to give us pause as we think about what is happening as Iraq moves out to live on its own, Afghanistan prepares for its own  possible future alone, China continues its peaceful rise and geopolitical power and economic might shifts toward Asia.  Even so, his ideas are his most important contribution:

I favor ‘anti political politics, politics not as the technology of power and manipulation, of cybernetic rule over humans or as the art of the utilitarian, but politics as one of the ways of seeking and achieving meaningful lives, of protecting them and serving them. via Richard Eskow, Huffington Post.

Gingrich and Huntsman Long Form Debate.

The long shot and the current front runner square off in Lincoln Douglas-style debate in New Hampshire.  Here’s to more discussions like this:

The former Ambassador to China played well-informed pundit on the future of Chinese politics, arguing that the next generation of Chinese leaders who will be taking power are “a hubristic nationalistic generation” who had no experience of earlier decades of political turmoil. “They’ve been terribly informed by 30 years of massive economic growth,” he said.

And here’s a great Huntsman thought for all teachers of AP Comparative Politics courses crafting essay questions. The Chinese, he said, are “the greatest long-term strategic thinkers in the world.” Americans “are the best short-term tactical thinkers in the world.” Discuss.

via Gingrich and Huntsman ‘debate’ in New Hampshire – PostPartisan – The Washington Post.

Conservatives and global governance | The Multilateralist

Repbulican U.S. debates on foreign policy and national security raise a number of good questions about where the candidates stand and how their positions relate to historical trends among candidates and the party.  It is a canard to say that the Party of Lincoln aren’t fans of international organization–but to what extent does that hold true?

David Bosco explores this question in a two-part blog post, noting that:

When the focus shifts to that broader constellation of international organizations, the picture becomes more complicated. American conservatives are not uniformly opposed to a prominent role for institutions such as the World Bank, the IMF, or the WTO. (They have little fondness for the European Union, it’s true, and none of the candidates is eager to see U.S. funds save the Euro. But that does not distinguish them significantly from the Obama administration.) Indeed, in last week’s Republican debate, Mitt Romney advocated using the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism to challenge China without a peep from the other candidates:

via Conservatives and global governance (part 2) | The Multilateralist.

Stop Rewriting Thanksgiving—and the Rest of History – The Daily Beast

Be thankful for compromise.  It is not overrated–and is needed to address major US budget issues, European debt problems, and many other issues.

Political heroes in our history—including all the Rushmore presidents and other admired chief executives, the greatest leaders of Congress and even titans of the judiciary—emphasized flexibility over fanaticism. To use our current terminology, they flip-flopped regularly, with Jefferson disregarding old principles to purchase Louisiana, Madison rechartering the Bank of the United States after opposing its initial establishment, FDR and Reagan vastly increasing deficits after solemnly pledging to balance budgets, Nixon recognizing Red China after three decades of denunciation, Bill Clinton signing welfare reform after two prior vetoes, and so forth. Barack Obama’s inability to negotiate a similar pivot to adjust to new budget realities and a new Republican House hasn’t enhanced his stature, it’s diminished it. One need not embrace the Emersonian idea that “consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds” to recognize the value of adjusting tactics in the interest of strategy, of reconsidering short-term means in order to achieve long-term ends.

via Stop Rewriting Thanksgiving—and the Rest of History – The Daily Beast.

Grade the Republican Foreign Policy Debate

What’s your assessment of the Republican primary field on issues of war and peace?

The NYT reported on Perry’s “provocative suggestions” and Huntsman took on Romney for what the former U.S. Ambassador to China said would be a trade war. Bachman screams bias at the reliable boogeyman, CBS.

Rick Perry tried to get a joke in about his infamous “oops” moment, while Jon Huntsman supported a full withdrawal from Afghanistan. Watch video of the best moments from the foreign-policy debate. Plus, Bruce Riedel, Michelle Goldberg, and more Daily Beast contributors weigh in.

via Watch CBS News/National Journal Republican Debates Best Moments Video – The Daily Beast.

One interesting result is documented in Nate Silver’s data-rich blog, FiveThirtyEight where he shows that Mitt is sagging and Gingrich rising while everyone else appears to be holding steady and low.

All That Glimmers – NYTimes.com

Riposte to Ron Paul:

Gold can’t be smoked away. Yet, as money, it shares tobacco’s basic drawback: It would shackle the economy to how much gold we could get our hands on. Today the Fed can print dollars at will to meet the growing demand for money as the economy grows, or even to encourage growth. Under a gold standard, the economy couldn’t grow faster than the supply of gold.

via All That Glimmers – NYTimes.com.