Masters of Illusion American Leadership in the Media Age

The United States will confront a series of fundamental challenges through the middle of the twenty-first century. Using a theory of economic systems to gauge present and future global conflicts, Steven Rosefielde and D. Quinn Mills see the challenges as posed sequentially by terrorism, Russia, China, and the European Union. In the cases of terrorism, Russia, and China, Western leaders appreciate aspects of these perils, but they are crafting unduly soft policies to deal with the challenges. The authors believe that 'globalists' notwithstanding, such views are myopic in an era where nuclear proliferation has invalidated the concept of mutually assured destruction. What America requires is a new security concept that the authors call 'strategic independence' to enable keeping the peace in dangerous times and foster new generations of leaders capable of acting sanely despite a current public culture addicted to wishful thinking.

Part I. National Security in the New Age: 1. A world wounded; 2. Long-term economic realism; Part II. American Public Culture and the World: 3. 'Smooth comforts false' - the illusions that confuse us; 4. Towers of illusion: dysfunctional behaviors; 5. Mythomaniacs: the sources of our illusions; Part III. American Public Culture and Ourselves: 6. Champions of freedom or imperialists: how we're perceived; 7. We're different now; Part IV. The Reconfiguration of National Wealth and Power: 8. The economic roots of American power; 9. Economic disparities amongst nations; 10. Geopolitical aspirations of the nations; Part V. Vortexes of Danger: 11. A Witch's brew of troubles: the next big wars; 12. The Middle East; Part VI. The American Response: 13. Strategic independence: an ounce of prevention; 14. America as mature superpower; Part VII. Leading Toward Peace: 15. The dangers of overreach; 16. The transatlantic trap; 17. The middle course; Part VIII. American Presidential Leadership: 18. How public culture inhibits presidential leadership; 19. Choosing a great president; 20. Masters of illusions; Endnotes.

Steven Rosefielde is Professor of Economics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Adjunct Professor of Defense and Strategic Studies, Center for Defense and Strategic Studies, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield. The author or editor of eleven books on Russia and the Soviet Union, including Russia in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press, 2005), he is also a member of the Russian Academy of Natural Science. Professor Rosefielde has served as a consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and advised several directors of the US Central Intelligence Agency and the US National Intelligence Council. Professor Rosefielde has also worked with the Swedish Defense Agency and the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute (Moscow) for more than a quarter century and with the Center for Defense and Foreign Policy (Moscow) for more than a decade.
D. Quinn Mills has held the Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Chair in Business Administration at Harvard Business School since 1976. He was previously a professor at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. Professor Mills is the author of more than 25 books on leadership and management, including the forthcoming Human Resources Management (2006), Principles of Management (2005), Wheel, Deal, and Steal: Deceptive Accounting, Deceitful CEOs, and Ineffective Reforms (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2003), and Buy, Lie, and Sell High: How Investors Lost Out on Enron and the Internet Bubble (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2002). He has been a corporate or executive education consultant to more than a dozen Fortune 500 companies and in nearly 20 countries, as well as to the US Government's Fannie Mae program.