Do Morals Matter?

Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump

By: Joseph S. Nye Jr.

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Americans constantly make moral judgments about presidents and foreign policy. Unfortunately, many of these assessments are poorly thought through. A president is either praised for the moral clarity of his statements or judged solely on the results of their actions.

In Do Morals Matter?, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., one of the world's leading scholars of international relations, provides a concise yet penetrating analysis of the role of ethics in US foreign policy during the American era after 1945. Nye works through each presidency from FDR to Trump and scores their foreign policy on three ethical dimensions of their intentions, the means they used, and the consequences of their decisions. Alongside this, he also evaluates their leadership qualities, elaborating on which approaches work and which ones do not. Regardless of a president's policy preference, Nye shows that each one was not fully constrained by the structure of the system and actually had choices. He further notes the important ethical consequences of non-actions, such as Truman's willingness to accept stalemate in Korea rather than use nuclear weapons.

©2020 Joseph S. Nye, Jr. (P)2020 Tantor

Excellent!

This book was so well written and narrated that I listened to it every chance I had. In fact, I have also bought the hard copy so that I can go over it again, this time with a highlighter to emphasize the most important points. Well organized, fairly analyzed, and thoughtfully presented.