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A World Safe for Democracy
- Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order
- Narrated by: Mark Boyett
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
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Publisher's summary
A sweeping account of the rise and evolution of liberal internationalism in the modern era
For 200 years, the grand project of liberal internationalism has been to build a world order that is open, loosely rules-based, and oriented toward progressive ideas. Today this project is in crisis, threatened from the outside by illiberal challengers and from the inside by nationalist-populist movements. This timely book offers the first full account of liberal internationalism’s long journey from its 19th-century roots to today’s fractured political moment.
Creating an international “space” for liberal democracy, preserving rights and protections within and between countries, and balancing conflicting values such as liberty and equality, openness and social solidarity, and sovereignty and interdependence - these are the guiding aims that have propelled liberal internationalism through the upheavals of the past two centuries. G. John Ikenberry argues that in a 21st century marked by rising economic and security interdependence, liberal internationalism - reformed and reimagined - remains the most viable project to protect liberal democracy.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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- Jose
- 06-27-23
A genuine American Dr Frankenstein
This is a really good book to have on “liberal world order”. This is written by a Princeton professor that is very influential on the subject matter. So, this is an authority on the subject. Probably had every other American diplomat in the last 30 years, in his class room. The narrator is 100% class.
What will shock the reader is how ethereal the subject matter is. If you wanted to know what it is, you will be disappointed. This is like reading the 10K for a company that does not sell a legal or moral product, like what an “investment bank” really is and how it makes money. Or it’s like reading the fine print on a scam. The outcome can be anything and they take no responsibility for bad outcomes. The author claims every human improvement as a benefit of “Liberal World Order”. Also, only a fellow “liberal” can say what a “liberal” is. So, they can blame everything on non-liberals, because only Globalist liberals know what Globalist liberals are. Also, the author keeps saying "we" and "Americans" as though anyone actually openly voted on the social and global engineering he loves. These are the Ottoman palace Eunuchs 2.0 run amok but claiming the "we" and "flag" of America. Hilarious and ominous. Doesn't it seem odd and super convenient that World "crisis" always happen when these palace Eunuchs are ascendant?
I am not sure that this authority fully understands how hackable this ideal really is. Also, he says so much about “democracy” that he does not see that that “democracy” is not what he wants. They want people that follow a leading and selected “liberal”, so if people elect a non-liberal, then it’s not “democracy” anymore. Author fails to see that JM Keynes was protecting the British monetary system in Versailles, even JMK said so himself. Fails to see that the "great" unlimited, total war only became the 20th Century standard because of unlimited central bank financing allows for total war, big governments make Big Wars. Little war lords actually manage their finances more carefully, their wars are very limited. A little war lord can't and won't sacrifice 500K people to take a French fortress. Also fails to see that shadow figures and intellectuals that morph between government jobs , finance jobs, "infrastructure" companies, defense companies, Health NGOs, and company boards are not "democratic", they represent their own interests. The author seems not to know that 1800's "Empires" especially Russia's was to create "safe space for civilization" too. They thought Central Asia and the Caucuses were pretty Barbaric, they were "civilizing". The Brits viewed and rationalized their "Empire" the same way. France just wanted to make the 19th Century Mediterranean "Safe". It's the most elitist form of government imaginable, 180-degrees divorced from self-rule and democracy.
Also, interesting that Woodrow Wilson is the model Liberal? The dude that nationalized the Railroads? Creator of the Sedition Act? The guy that hated people, hated debate, and wanted to unilaterally write constitutions – and went crazy twice when he could not get his way. He actually wrote constitutions for fun and rued internally when people always dismissed them. Once at Princeton, he was fired for being a megalomaniac tyrant president. His way or mental break-down. Then the same happened after Versailles, another mental breakdown. Also, Wilson did not believe in Constitutional Democracy. Not at all. He continuously made it impossible for the USA to be neutral in WW1, against the will of the people and then enforced compliance. Why were American tourists going on vacation in War Zones? Why did the cruise ship blow up like they were full of munitions? Why undermine his own peace-focused and anti-Empire Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan. Also, Wilson's venal fixer, Colonel House, openly fantasized about a Wilsonian dictatorship, even wrote a book, “Phil Dru- Administrator”, about an American “benevolent” dictator. But I get it. Wilson is a “liberal” when this author says he is “liberal”, but when he is bad, he is “illiberal”, so his actions don’t taint the brand. Does this professor know that Wilson invaded and occupied Nicaragua to help his gangster benefactors? Crimes against Central American folks don't count in Princeton?
Basically, this is a very un-self-aware book with the most immature and circular logic imaginable. Needs to be translated to Spanish ASAP. "Esto creen los de Washington." The Spanish title would be "A world Safe for Our Democracy."
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- Nicole
- 08-31-22
good :)
conceptually good, fails to address causes which are briefly mentioned but with no real nuanced discussion until the very end. still a very insightful view of Liberal internationalists understanding.
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Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.
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Few forests, but lots of trees
- By Steve Pagano on 10-05-15
By: Francis Fukuyama
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Strategic Vision
- America and the Crisis of Global Power
- By: Zbigniew Brzezinski
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 6 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1991, the United States was the only global superpower. It seemed that the 21st century, like the 20th, would belong to America. Then came the stock market bubble, the costly foreign unilateralism of the younger Bush presidency, and the financial catastrophe of 2008. Meanwhile, China was rising and the Middle East was awakening politically. Today it is clear that America is vulnerable - to domestic and international decline and unregulated greed.
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Insightfull and imforming
- By Roy on 02-15-12
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Democracy Incorporated
- Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism
- By: Sheldon S. Wolin
- Narrated by: Joe Barrett
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Sheldon Wolin considers the unthinkable: has America unwittingly morphed into a new and strange kind of political hybrid, one where economic and state powers are conjoined and virtually unbridled? Can the nation check its descent into what the author terms "inverted totalitarianism"? Wolin portrays a country where citizens are politically uninterested and submissive - and where elites are eager to keep them that way.
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Essential listening....
- By M. Levine on 02-25-11
By: Sheldon S. Wolin
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A History of Fascism, 1914-1945
- By: Stanley G. Payne
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 20 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Focusing mostly on Italy and Germany but also considering Spain, Romania, Japan, and movements in other countries, Payne describes fascism as revolutionary ultranationalism based on national rebirth, extreme elitism, mass mobilization, and the promotion of violence and military virtues. He also suggests that the early Russian communists borrowed many techniques from fascism, and that though we are fairly well-inoculated against fascism itself, the values it represents could still emerge in new forms.
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Dated lit review, ill-suited for audiobook
- By Keith on 11-24-19
By: Stanley G. Payne
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The Light That Failed
- Why the West Is Losing the Fight for Democracy
- By: Ivan Krastev, Stephen Holmes
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Why did the West, after winning the Cold War, lose its political balance? In the early 1990s, hopes for the eastward spread of liberal democracy were high. And yet the transformation of Eastern European countries gave rise to a bitter repudiation of liberalism itself, not only there but also back in the heartland of the West. In this brilliant work of political history, Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes argue that the supposed end of Communism turned out to be only the beginning of the age of the autocrat.
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Great text
- By Safronov on 05-03-21
By: Ivan Krastev, and others
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The World
- A Brief Introduction
- By: Richard Haass
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The World is designed to provide listeners of any age and experience with the essential background and building blocks they need to make sense of this complicated and interconnected world. It will empower them to manage the flood of daily news. Listeners will become more informed, discerning citizens, better able to arrive at sound, independent judgments. While it is impossible to predict what the next crisis will be or where it will originate, those who listen to The World will have what they need to understand its basics and the principal choices for how to respond.
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Excellent Primer for young adults
- By Howells on 05-24-20
By: Richard Haass
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The Darker Nations
- A People's History of the Third World
- By: Vijay Prashad, Howard Zinn - editor
- Narrated by: Neil Shah
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Here, from a brilliant young writer, is a paradigm-shifting history of both a utopian concept and global movement - the idea of the Third World. The Darker Nations traces the intellectual origins and the political history of the 20th century attempt to knit together the world's impoverished countries in opposition to the United States and Soviet spheres of influence in the decades following World War II.
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So informative!
- By krishna chaitanya on 01-03-22
By: Vijay Prashad, and others
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Central Asia
- A New History from the Imperial Conquests to the Present
- By: Adeeb Khalid
- Narrated by: Aaqil Ahmed
- Length: 17 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Central Asia is often seen as a remote and inaccessible land on the peripheries of modern history. Encompassing Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and the Xinjiang province of China, it in fact stands at the crossroads of world events. Adeeb Khalid provides the first comprehensive history of Central Asia from the mid-18th century to today, shedding light on the historical forces that have shaped the region under imperial and Communist rule.
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Great History of a Forgotten Region
- By Than on 07-07-21
By: Adeeb Khalid
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The End of History and the Last Man
- By: Francis Fukuyama
- Narrated by: L. J. Ganser
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Ever since its first publication in 1992, The End of History and the Last Man has provoked controversy and debate. Francis Fukuyama's prescient analysis of religious fundamentalism, politics, scientific progress, ethical codes, and war is as essential for a world fighting fundamentalist terrorists as it was for the end of the Cold War. Now updated with a new afterword, The End of History and the Last Man is a modern classic.
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An important discussion expertly narrated
- By Kevin Teeple on 06-27-19
By: Francis Fukuyama
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The Jungle Grows Back
- America and Our Imperiled World
- By: Robert Kagan
- Narrated by: Jason Culp
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Recent years have brought deeply disturbing developments around the globe. American sentiment seems to be leaning increasingly toward withdrawal in the face of such disarray. In this powerful, urgent essay, Robert Kagan elucidates the reasons why American withdrawal would be the worst possible response, based as it is on a fundamental and dangerous misreading of the world. Like a jungle that keeps growing back after being cut down, the world has always been full of dangerous actors who, left unchecked, possess the desire and ability to make things worse.
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Out of date: covid, Trump nobel nominations etc
- By David on 11-13-18
By: Robert Kagan
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Diplomacy
- By: Henry Kissinger
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 37 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving from a sweeping overview of history to blow-by-blow accounts of his negotiations with world leaders, Henry Kissinger describes how the art of diplomacy has created the world in which we live, and how America's approach to foreign affairs has always differed vastly from that of other nations. Brilliant, controversial, and profoundly incisive, Diplomacy stands as the culmination of a lifetime of diplomatic service and scholarship. It is a must-listen for anyone concerned with the forces that have shaped our world today and will impact upon it tomorrow.
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Great foreign policy overview!
- By Mikhail on 02-02-20
By: Henry Kissinger
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The Birth of Classical Europe
- A History from Troy to Augustine
- By: Simon Price, Peter Thonemann
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 14 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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To an extraordinary extent we continue to live in the shadow of the classical world. At every level, from languages to calendars to political systems, we are the descendants of a “classical Europe,” using frames of reference created by ancient Mediterranean cultures. As this consistently fresh and surprising new audio book makes clear, however, this was no less true for the inhabitants of those classical civilizations themselves, whose myths, history, and buildings were an elaborate engagement with an already old and revered past - one filled with great leaders and writers....
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Excellent overview of the Classical World
- By David I. Williams on 01-12-14
By: Simon Price, and others
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The Avoidable War
- The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping's China
- By: Kevin Rudd
- Narrated by: Kevin Rudd, Rafe Beckley
- Length: 16 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The relationship between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily. Kevin Rudd, a former Australian prime minister who has studied, lived in, and worked with China for more than forty years, is one of the very few people who can offer real insight into the mindsets of the leadership whose judgment will determine if a war will be fought.
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Xi and the CCP Approve this Message
- By Andrizomai on 12-04-22
By: Kevin Rudd
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Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know
- By: Serhy Yekelchyk
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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