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37 customer reviews (37 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews
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Proving that exorbitant wealth and allegiance to the Republican Party do not necessarily go hand in hand, billionaire George Soros offers a sharp critique of the neoconservative philosophy that he sees guiding the George W. Bush administration. In The Bubble of American Supremacy, Soros warns that American efforts to be the ultimate global superpower will not only be unsuccessful but will make America and the world infinitely more unstable. Bush and company, he says, have callously used the events of September 11th for their own political gain and misled the world about the threat posed by Iraq. In previous American presidential elections, billionaires Steve Forbes and Ross Perot have tried to run for president themselves to address the country's problems, but Soros--while no less zealous about his convictions--sees his role a little differently. "I have made it my primary objective to persuade the American public to reject President Bush in the upcoming elections," he writes, "We have been deceived." The arguments he makes and the evidence he presents are interesting enough, although there really isn't anything here that hasn't been written in scores of other anti-Bush books released around the same time. What sets Soros's book apart from all the others is the recurring presence of Soros himself, frequently citing previous books he's written, speeches he's made, and highlights of his career. The pronoun "I" is never far away. Granted, it's been an interesting career; his financial success coupled with his passionate political convictions would make for a terrific memoir, but at times in this book Soros's ego gets almost comically in the way. Referring to his long-held support for open societies, he says this philosophy "could almost be called the Soros doctrine" only to renounce propriety over it a page later. Soros is a capable writer and a clear thinker, and he ably articulates his views. Readers interested in criticisms of Bush and company have several options but readers interested in George Soros will find plenty to satisfy them here. --John Moe --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Soros has made it his "primary objective to persuade the American public to reject President Bush in the forthcoming elections." This aspiration is immediately clear from the outset of his new book. The founder of Soros Fund Management (and author of The Crisis of Global Capitalism, etc.) gives sweeping critiques of the current administration and shows how its post-9/11 policy has pointed the country in a direction that he believes will lead to ruin. The book's major shortcoming is that it fails to add anything particularly new to this project, and is not always convincing. It's not clear, for instance, why a pact of signatories to the Warsaw Declaration for the development of democracy would be more effective than the U.N. in getting nations to put the common good above national interest. To his credit, Soros accurately presents the important dimensions of the "Bush Doctrine" foreign policy and its vision of America's role in the world. He is able to incorporate his expertise in areas of international finance and to give some interesting and unique insights, such as seeing American supremacy as the boom part of a boom-bust cycle. But neither simple explication nor periodic nuggets of wisdom make this a particularly good read. Overall, the book is clear, but it will do little to persuade an attentive American audience that they should vote Bush out in 2004.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

    * Paperback: 224 pages
    * Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ); New Ed edition (October 7, 2004)
    * ISBN-10: 0753818604
    * ISBN-13: 978-0753818602
    * Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
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    * Average Customer Review: based on 37 reviews. (Write a review.)
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Blinded by a concept
11:05 AM PDT, August 31, 2006
The failure of Israel to subdue Hezbollah demonstrates the many weaknesses of the war-on-terror concept. One of those weaknesses is that even if the targets are terrorists, the victims are often innocent civilians, and their suffering reinforces the terrorist cause.

In response to Hezbollah's attacks, Israel was justified in attacking Hezbollah to protect itself against the threat of missiles on its border. However, Israel should have taken greater care to minimize collateral damage. The civilian casualties and material damage inflicted on Lebanon inflamed Muslims and world opinion against Israel and converted Hezbollah from aggressors to heroes of resistance for many. Weakening Lebanon has also made it more difficult to rein in Hezbollah.

Another weakness of the war-on-terror concept is that it relies on military action and rules out political approaches. Israel previously withdrew from Lebanon and then from Gaza unilaterally, rather than negotiating political settlements with the Lebanese government and the Palestinian authority. The strengthening of Hezbollah and Hamas was a direct consequence of that approach. The war-on-terror concept stands in the way of recognizing this fact because it separates "us" from "them" and denies that our actions help shape their behavior.
 
A third weakness is that the war-on-terror concept lumps together different political movements that use terrorist tactics. It fails to distinguish between Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda or the Sunni insurrection and the Mahdi militia in Iraq. Yet all these terrorist manifestations, being different, require different responses. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah can be treated merely as targets in the war on terror because they have deep roots in their societies; yet there are profound differences between them.

Looking back, it is easy to see where Israeli policy went wrong. When Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, Israel should have gone out of its way to strengthen him and his reformist team. When Israel withdrew from Gaza, the former head of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, negotiated a six-point plan on behalf of the Quartet for the Middle East (Russia, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations). It included opening crossings between Gaza and the West Bank, an airport and seaport in Gaza, opening the border with Egypt, and transferring the greenhouses abandoned by Israeli settlers into Arab hands.

None of the six points was implemented. This contributed to Hamas’s electoral victory. The Bush administration, having pushed Israel to allow the Palestinians to hold elections, then backed Israel’s refusal to deal with a Hamas government. The effect was to impose further hardship on the Palestinians.

Nevertheless, Abbas was able to forge an agreement with the political arm of Hamas for the formation of a unity government. It was to foil this agreement that the military branch of Hamas, run from Damascus, engaged in the provocation that brought a heavy-handed response from Israel - which in turn incited Hezbollah to further provocation, opening a second front. That is how extremists play off against each other to destroy any chance of political progress.

Israel has been a participant in this game, and President Bush bought into this flawed policy, uncritically supporting Israel. Events have shown that this policy leads to the escalation of violence. The process has advanced to the point where Israel's unquestioned military superiority is no longer sufficient to overcome the negative consequences of its policy.

Israel is now more endangered in it existence that it was at the time of the Oslo Agreement on peace. Similarly, The United States has become less safe since President Bush declared war on terror.

The time has come to realize that the present policies are counterproductive. There will be no end to the vicious circle of escalating violence without a political settlement of the Palestine question. In fact, the prospects for engaging in negotiations are better now than they were a few months ago. The Israelis must realize that a military deterrent is not sufficient on its own. And Arabs, having redeemed themselves on the battlefield, may be more willing to entertain a compromise.

There are strong voices arguing that Israel must never negotiate from a position of weakness. They are wrong. Israel’s position is liable to become weaker the longer it persists on its present course. Similarly Hezbollah, having tasted the sense but not the reality of victory (and egged on by Syria and Iran) may prove recalcitrant. But that is where the difference between Hezbollah and Hamas comes into play. The Palestinian people yearn for peace and relief from suffering. The political - as distinct from the military - wing of Hamas must be responsive to their desires. It is not too late for Israel to encourage and deal with an Abbas-led Palestinian unity government as the first step toward a better-balanced approach. Given how strong the U.S.-Israeli relationship is, it would help Israel achieve its own legitimate aims if the U.S. government were not blinded by the war-on-terror concept.

Discover how the principles of Reflexivity effect both global finance and U.S. foreign relations in:

The Age of Fallibility: Consequences of the War on Terror 

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Citations (learn more)
22 books cite this book:

    * The Terror of Neoliberalism: Authoritarianism and the Eclipse of Democracy (Cultural Politics and the Promise of Democracy) by Henry A. Giroux in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
    * American Terminator: Myths, Movies, And Global Power by Ziauddin Sardar in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
    * Empires by Herfried Munkler in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
    * Writing on the Wall: Scenario Development in Times of Discontinuity by Philip Van Notten in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
    * What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World by Melissa Rossi in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 22 books citing this book
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145 of 191 people found the following review helpful:
Soros offers hope for America, January 7, 2004
By 	Theodore A. Rushton (PHOENIX, Arizona United States) - See all my reviews
   (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power (Hardcover)
If you think the foreign policy of President George Bush is inept and leading America into a quagmire, then you'll love this book; Soros offers the intelligent businessman's solution to the conservative quicksand.

Consider the background of Soros and Bush. Soros survived the Nazis and Communists in Hungary, got to the US in 1956 and had enough business acumen to become a billionaire. Bush is the son of Old Establishment money and political patronage who never earned a cent in his life, always relying on his Daddy's wealthy friends. Soros became rich by understanding the motivations and actions of others; Bush became president because political advisers Karl Rove and James Baker saw him as a pliant puppet,

Does that make either man a foreign affairs expert? No.

Soros' foreign expertise comes from the $500 million he spends every year to encourage genuine democracy around the world. Bush's policy comes from a narrow group of American Supremacist reactionaries who advocate a unilateralist approach which other nations may join but not influence. Therein lies the difference between the two: Bush has an America First policy, Soros advocates cooperative international solution.

Who is right? Well, in the world of business, Soros' ideas of cooperation instead of confrontation works well. He outlines his approach with an articulate skill in this book, criticizing the Bush mistakes and saying other nations can offer invaluable help. Soros is the modern equivalent of President Woodrow Wilson who created the League of Nations, a brilliant idea which failed due to American isolationism and its failure to counter aggression. Like Wilson, Soros believes in rational people making intelligent decisions.

In brief, it is the essence of his book. I recently re-read 'Common Sense' by Thomas Paine, the 1776 book that was the intellectual foundation for the American Declaration of Independence. Soros has written the modern international equivalent, as well-reasoned, eloquent and impassioned as Paine. However, there is a difference. Paine faced King George III, who may have been nuts but was obviously very astute. Today, America faces an amorphous irrational terrorism based on an utterly insane religious fundamentalism.

Events in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Mid-East countries may well have an impact on the 2004 election. The choice will be between American Supremacist in a "follow us or get ready to fight us" tactics or a policy based on American Leadership with a "we'll respect your views" type of consultation and cooperation.

Soros has been there. As a Jew in his native Budapest, he survived in the impact of the "Germany Above all Others" policy. He survived the utterly irrational communist fundamentalism. America made him vastly rich. He has been funding democratic programs in Europe since the 1980s. It's an incredible personal schooling on which to base his views.

The 2004 election debate will likely be on the economy, with foreign policy as the runner-up. Much of the talk show debate involves extremists screaming at each other; Soros offers an intelligent alternative to the current quagmire.

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52 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
Honest, Pointed, Handicapped, Mis-Spending His Money, April 29, 2004
By 	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power (Hardcover)


If there is one person who brings together global knowledge, moral capitalism, an appreciation for open society principles, an understanding of how dangerous supremacist ideologies can be, and the money with which to save the world by leading the broader public to have an "aha" experience, it is George Soros. I try to read and review everything he writes.

I take one star off because he is not putting his money where his books says it needs to be. I begin with this comment, actually my last observation, to set the stage for the other comments below, all of which revolve around the point he makes in the beginning, but a point that he is doing nothing to fund the correction of: "The gap in perceptions between America and the rest of the world has never been wider." This is correct, but the $15M plus that he has donated to ACT and other minor organizations is not funding the re-education of America, it is funding minor-league politicization and mobilization likely to fail given the 20 year neglect of the Democratic precincts, and the fact that neither the Republican nor the Democratic parties are capable of assembling a true informed majority.

His early analysis in the book, on the dangers of supremacist ideologies and the curious alliance between religious fundamentalists (zealots who know nothing of the real world) and market fundamentalists (immoral capitalists who care nothing of the real world) is spot on. He is articulate and effective in writing about the manner in which this extremist ideology, "we are always right, they are always wrong", in endangering not just American ideals, but American survival.

He touches on but fails to capitalize on the urgency of splitting the moderate Republicans (I am one of them) from the extremist base, perhaps by funding the foundation of a new party, the Fiscal Conservatives (moderate Republicans and Southern conservative Democrats).

His chapter on the "war" on terror and his condemnation of treating terrorism as a war, with the wrong tools, wrong approach, and wrong effects from our well-intentioned but uninformed behavior is also powerful in its common sense. He notes that this "war" (I have called it a six-front hundred-year war that *we* started in reaction to 9-11, without thinking strategically) has killed more civilian bystanders than the attack on the World Trade Center, and simultaneously super-charged anti-American sentiment around the world--including among the British!

He is subtly but scathingly critical of Congress for abdicating its responsibility to balance the power of the Executive, and documents the careless manner in which the Patriot Act was brought about (Bush can also confiscate pleasure boats with Cuban charts on thsm).

The middle of the book examines, with a capitalist's critical eye, the wasted hundreds of billions on Iraq, and how that money might have been better used to address the complex emergencies in Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia (one might also add the tri-border region in Latin America, which is about to explode).

Soros is, I believe, in error, when he concludes that the forthcoming election provides an opportunity to deflate the bubble of American supremacy. First off, the Republicans are taking the election seriously, the Democrats are not. Second off, the Kerry team has proven completely incapable of devising a shadow government, a coalition cabinet, and a balanced budget within which to make policy deals with moderate Republicans and others such as Independents and Greens.

In the next section Soros illuminates with a mix of previously state ideas, i.e. the political institutions needed to protect the common good have not kept up with the marketplace (Kissinger agrees), and new thoughts, among which I found the emphasis on restoring the definition of sovereignty to mean sovereignty of the people, not the state, to be the most compelling and also the most consistent with the many other books I have reviewed for Amazon, among which Jonathan Schell's book, "Unconquerable World" stands out.

Soros' other remarkable idea, which I think he should seek with $10M if he can spare the change, is that there is an urgent need for a D6 of developing countries to counter the G8 of First World industrial powers. He identifies Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and South Africa. I would add China and Argentina and make it D8 instead.

Finally, he concludes with a strong indictment of how foreign aid is administered today, less than 45% of it actual reaching needy recipients (versus 85% for his own programs), he touches on the importance of ensuring that the people, not the corrupt elite, get the benefits of any nation's natural resources, and that only an open society, in which citizens can and *must* (are *required to*) think for themselves, is a potentially prosperous and secure society.

So, concluding this review, I have to say, Bravo, Soros, but why isn't your money where your book suggests it should be? Let's Talk, America, for example, or the National Budget Simulation Project, or the Co-Intelligence Institute, or any of hundreds of bottom-up efforts to shed light on public policy, to create public intelligence that can both inform citizens and hold officials accountable for betraying the public trust--why are they not being noticed by Soros?

American has been radicalized by the Bush Administration, which will probably win in 2004 and further radicalize both America and the world. There will be multiple variations of 9-11, including at least one hijacked Pakistani submarine firing a missile into Australia. We don't need mobilization, we need education. We need a National Intelligence Council in the "seven tribes, seven standards, seven issues" sense, one that relies on open sources of information to ensure that every American understands what is at stake here, and how their ignorance not only feeds terrorism, it feeds the supremacist ideology of neo-conservativism that is terrorism's best friend.

Soros has come full circle, and now stands with Thomas Jefferson, who said "A Nation's best defense is an informed citizenry." So, when does school start?

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15 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
An important book, May 11, 2004
By 	Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
   (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)   
This review is from: The Bubble of American Supremacy: Correcting the Misuse of American Power (Hardcover)
"All in all, at no other time has America's position declined as dramatically in as short a period as it has since George W. Bush became president." (p. 74)

The first part of this book is a devastating critique of the imperialistic intent of the Bush administration. Soros constructs calmly and with measured deliberation a very sharp and very large pin, as it were, with which to burst the delusive bubble of what he calls the Bush doctrine of "American supremacy." He explains why it has failed in Iraq and why it will fail elsewhere. He avers:

"The United States cannot be either the police or the godparent of the world. America needs to work together with other countries." (p. 114)

I will not reprise his arguments here. Read them for yourself. To my mind they are utterly convincing. What I want to do instead is to present Soros's solution which is the subject of the second part of the book. His intent is to avoid a repetition of Bush's blunder in Iraq while at the same time protect the world from repressive and murderous regimes. What he has come up with is a shift in understanding of sovereignty from the sovereignty of governments to the sovereignty of people. He writes:

"The principle of sovereignty needs to be reconsidered. Sovereignty belongs to the people; the people are supposed to delegate it to the government through the electoral process." (p. 102)

He goes on to argue that the international community of states has the "responsibility to protect" the people from regimes intent on murder and mayhem. His intent is to justify intervention in the internal affairs of nations since he believes that what happens within a nation affects the world as a whole. Soros argues further that it would be a good idea to prevent crises before they develop. Instead of "the Bush doctrine of preemptive action of a military nature" he calls for "a doctrine of preventive action of a constructive nature." (p. 111)

Part of the impetus for Soros's argument comes from the Warsaw Declaration of 2000 in which it is proclaimed that "it is in the interest of all democratic countries...to foster the development of democracy in all other countries." (p. 112)

While Soros is a brilliant man of great visionary ability, I think it can be safely said that his doctrine is, considering the present state of international affairs, utopian. Nonetheless I think he is actually predicting what will happen in the future, although I don't think that such actions will be carried out by or under the auspices of the United Nations as it is presently constituted (and Soros says as much: see pp. 114-117). What Soros is envisioning is a coalition of democratic states led by the US and the European Union countries along with other economically and socially advanced countries deciding at some point that it is in their best interests to put the dictators and failed regimes out of business and to support and nurture democratic ones. If this works then the entire world might be constituted of nation states who solve their differences without recourse to the use of military force. At such time a new United Nations will be formed with a more equitable distribution of power among its members as well as greater authority and the real ability to enforce its regulations. Such a United Nations would be something similar to a United States of the World.

As interesting sidebar to Soros's argument is the idea that it is the very process of globalization that leads to the need to intervene in the internal affairs of nations. It is because of the international exchange of goods and services and the globalization of capital that the interests of one nation are affected by the actions of another. The resources of any one nation are themselves international. It used to be, as Soros points out, that most of the economic activity of any given state was internal. Now we have our wealth all over the globe. Consequently we must have the institutions that protect our interests and ensure the "maintenance of the market mechanism itself" all over the globe.

Should there be any doubt about the revolutionary nature of Soros's new world order, consider this from page 142: "The natural resources of a country ought to belong to the people, but the rulers often exploit the resources for their own personal needs. This violates the sovereignty of the people and calls for external intervention."

Consider this as well: "...the United States cannot avoid intervening in the internal affairs of other countries, but I claim that we must do so only on legitimate grounds." He quickly adds, so that there can be no mistake: "The Bush doctrine cannot be accepted by the rest of the world as legitimate." (pp. 171-172)

I highly recommend that readers read the Appendix entitled "My Conceptual Framework." In it Soros presents his ideas about "reflexivity," "radical fallibility," "the open society," and "the human uncertainty principle." Here's a sample of the profound understanding that this brilliant man has come to over the course of his extraordinary life: "We must treat our beliefs as provisionally true while keeping them open to constant reexamination. This is the foundation principle of an open society." (p. 195)

This principle, I must note, is allied to the idea of the invisible hand of the free market in which the intelligence of uncounted participants is reflected. There is a cognate in the ideas that are coming out of complexity theory in which we learn that intelligence is not a top down phenomenon, but something that can be brought about by autonomous individuals acting cooperatively like the neurons of our brains or ants in a colony or bees in a hive. But if individuals are not free to express themselves, but are oppressed by authority, their wisdom will never reach coalescence.

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In his last effort to dump George Bush, Soros resorts to his stern objectivity and economic savvy to expose the disastrous consequences of keeping a drug-rehabilitated and... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mohamed F. El-Hewie

A businessman's take on the neocons
Critiques of the neoconservatives often come from liberals, journalists, environmentalists, and pacifists. This is one of the few from a dedicated businessman. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Newton Ooi

What Money Can't Buy
Soros would like an Open Society created by peaceful means, where people can read what they want, criticize what they want, and elect whomever they want. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Douglas Doepke

Valid Concerns - First Half Well-Worth Reading
Soros is concerned that the Bush Administration misled the U.S. in going to war with Iraq, and that such an approach to terrorism will simply create more terrorists out of those... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Pragmatist

Supremacism and Bush's Lies for War

As I said it for another book ("The New American Empire"), George Soros's American Supremacy is also a great book to see through Bush's lies. Read more
Published 20 months ago by J. M. C.,

Soros Is Not Looking For Personal Gain
The author has earned a very large fortune in the financial markets. He is able to pursue any interest of his desire. Read more
Published on February 20, 2005 by G. Reid

Eloquent and badly needed
In this book, Soros argues that foreign policy under the Bush administration has failed because of an 'America first' philosophy. Read more
Published on January 15, 2005 by Robin Orlowski

Insightful!
George Soros is a major hedge fund operator and philanthropist whose foundation has supported many worthy causes, especially in emerging and formerly Communist countries. Read more
Published on October 25, 2004 by Rolf Dobelli

Moral Cowardice - Then and Now
George Soros has a problem with "American Supremacy".

Hmmm. That's interesting. For if the United States did 60 years ago what Soros and so many of the uninformed... Read more
Published on October 7, 2004 by Alan Rockman

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