Carnegie Reporter, Vol. 3, No. 3

by Michael Mandelbaum

Public Affairs

The United States is the busiest nation on the planet - promoting peace and democracy, opening global markets, discouraging the spread of nuclear weapons, helping other nations cope with the consequences of their fiscal crises. Should we, as some U.S. citizens and policymakers recommend, be doing less? Absolutely not, says author Michael Mandelbaum. A world without American intervention could go seriously awry. "If the United States takes a far less active part in international affairs," he posits, "a substantial contraction of the American global role would risk making the world a less secure and less prosperous place."

In The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World's Government in the 21st Century (Public Affairs, 2005) Mandelbaum, the Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy at The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and the recipient of a 2004 Scholars Award from Carnegie Corporation of New York, explains how providing vital services to other countries has made the United States the de facto government of the world. And while the enormity of U.S. power may inevitably lead to the country's being cast in the role of Goliath, the author provides ample evidence that America is a Goliath of the most benign sort. According to Mandelbaum, it is the influence of the United States that has resulted in the twenty-first century's unprecedented consensus in favor of three great ideas: peace as the optimal condition of international relations and the proper aim of foreign policy; democracy as the best form of government; and the free market as the only satisfactory way of organizing economic affairs.

Whether or not other countries seem to chafe at American supremacy, Mandelbaum says most have come to accept the influence U.S. policy, with all its shortcomings, has on global security and prosperity. Indeed, whether or not the country continues to act as a global government probably depends less on what the rest of the world wants than on the American public's willingness to pay for it.

Degenerates and Perverts:
The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art

By Eileen Chanin and Steven Miller with Judith Pugh

The Meigunyah Press

"At the outbreak of World War II an event took place in the Australian art world that was to resonate in the memories of those who saw it and form the experience of many who did not." So begins Degenerates and Perverts: The 1939 Herald Exhibition of French and British Contemporary Art, an insightful exploration of the over 200 works of art that, together, became a watershed in the artistic development of the continent. Organized by visionary art critic Basil Burdett and sponsored by publisher Sir Keith Murdoch (father of Rupert), the exhibition included such modern masters as Van Gogh, Gaughin, Picasso, Matisse, Cezanne, Modigliani and many others.

In the years since the exhibition, myths have arisen about the event and about the history of art in Australia, and this meticulously researched book (which includes color reproductions and a catalog listing for every work) takes pains to correct them. One example is the misconception that there was little appreciation for art in the years leading up to the exhibition. But a description of the role Carnegie Corporation of New York played in funding museums and galleries as well as the acquisition of art books and reproductions for Australia's public libraries in the years between the wars sets the record straight.

As the 1939 exhibition traveled to cities and towns throughout Australia, this assemblage of extraordinary works introduced the country to the best of modern art virtually in one fell swoop. It also made news and created controversy - infuriating conservative critic J.S. MacDonald, who labeled the artists "degenerates and perverts." His disdain for the artwork, reinforced by other influential naysayers, is largely responsible for the sad fact that, although they were available for rock-bottom wartime prices, very few pieces were acquired by museums or galleries in Australia.

This Was Not Our War

Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace

By Swanee Hunt

Duke University Press

"Replacing tyranny with justice, healing deep scars, exchanging hatred for hope…the women in This Was Not Our War teach us how … In their stories, we read the history of humankind. In their vision, we glimpse possibilities for our future."

— from the foreword by William Jefferson Clinton

Swanee Hunt was the U.S. ambassador to Austria during the 1990s, when war was raging in Bosnia just over the border. Unable to just stand by and watch events unfold, she traveled to Sarajevo in the belly of a cargo plane bringing urgently needed supplies to the city, which was then enduring a months-long siege. Later, when hazardous conditions made it impossible for her to return, Hunt changed tactics and began interviewing Bosnian women who were surviving the savagery of war, and who would later dedicate their lives to rebuilding the country in peace. Twenty-six of those women —doctors, engineers, journalists, politicians, businesswomen, wives and mothers— tell their very personal, deeply moving stories in this book.

The women are all ages and socioeconomic levels, and they represent Bosnia's many cultural and ethnic groups. All share the horrifying memory of watching their vibrant multicultural community explode into chaos and violence. And while they speak with candor about past trauma, their focus is on a humane and peaceful future. A seasoned diplomat and psychologist, Hunt is the director of the Women and Public Policy Program of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Her book paints a compelling picture of Bosnia’s political climate from the height of the conflict through the peace process and post-war period. She believes the Bosnian women's testimony offers not only an emotional connection, but "lessons citizens and policy makers alike can ponder." This Was Not Our War, says Robert Coles, is "the kind of history Tolstoy urged be written—a narration of on-the-scene individuals rendered by one herself very much willing to be respectfully among them."