The Big Stick: The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force

[Read by Bill Thatcher]

A renowned scholar of international relations argues that even in a changing world, American military power is as crucial as ever.

In The Big Stick, Eliot A. Cohen argues that the United States must use military power in support of its foreign policy, but that doing so will be increasingly difficult. The United States must continue to assume primary responsibility for maintaining world order, or risk a chaotic international environment reminiscent of the 1920s and 1930s -- but this time with far more devastating weapons in dangerous hands.

America faces major national security challenges: a rising China, enduring jihadi movements, states like Russia and Iran that attempt to upend regions they then seek to dominate, and precarious ungoverned regions from anarchic lands such as Libya to the intangible arena of cyberspace. To confront these problems, our government must revive old concepts such as mobilization and preemption and, more importantly, engage in original thinking about how, and under what conditions, the United States should use force -- as it will undoubtedly find itself compelled to do.

Combining the scholarship of a prize-winning historian, the experience of a former senior diplomat, and the fluency of a gifted essayist, Cohen shows how America must rethink and reorder its armed strength to meet the needs of a world in flux.