30 review for Dictatorships and Double Standards: Rationalism and Reason in Politics

1. 

   4 out of 5

   Caseyurey – Dec 01, 2011

   Jeane Kirkpatrick is a foreign policy expert that represented the United States at the UN during the peak of the Cold War conflict during the Reagan administration. In her book, Dictatorships and Double Standards, she highlights several examples of failures of US foreign policy as well as gives insight to the political atmosphere, and the state the world is in now. The advice that stuck out the most to me was her advice she gave on how to handle dictators. The book is wealth on knowledge and her Jeane Kirkpatrick is a foreign policy expert that represented the United States at the UN during the peak of the Cold War conflict during the Reagan administration. In her book, Dictatorships and Double Standards, she highlights several examples of failures of US foreign policy as well as gives insight to the political atmosphere, and the state the world is in now. The advice that stuck out the most to me was her advice she gave on how to handle dictators. The book is wealth on knowledge and her opinions on the foreign policy of the United States is more relevant now then ever due to the recent Arab Spring which overthrew several American supported leaders. I agree that the American media can be easily swayed to support an attractive, sexy revolution that fights against an ageing American supported dictatorship without thinking past the revolution. It validates the fears that me and many other conservatives had during the Arab Spring. The fear that the Arab Spring would not yield democracy, but instead another dictatorship worse then before. When Kirkpatrick was reflecting on America’s obsessions with change, she said “The American commitment to ‘change’ in the abstract ends up by aligning us tacitly with Soviet clients and irresponsible extremists like Ayatollah Khomeini or, in the end, Yasir Arafat” (pg. 41). I learned a lot about how connect the all of the world is to each other and how the media plays into the hands of revolutionist and manipulates the world perception of all political figures. I feel that the world has started to shrink smaller everyday as each conflict has become understandable, thanks to this book.

2. 

   4 out of 5

   Benj FitzPatrick – Dec 06, 2011

   This book is referenced multiple times in "Rise of the Vulcans" as the foundation used by Bush's war cabinet when it came to foreign policy. This treatise is dense and took a fair bit of focus to muck my way through it. The foreign policy part raises some interesting ideological questions (eg when thinking of foreign policy, how much does a country need to insert its own needs for national security, etc. versus the effort placed on working with or helping foreign nations. Some of the arguments b This book is referenced multiple times in "Rise of the Vulcans" as the foundation used by Bush's war cabinet when it came to foreign policy. This treatise is dense and took a fair bit of focus to muck my way through it. The foreign policy part raises some interesting ideological questions (eg when thinking of foreign policy, how much does a country need to insert its own needs for national security, etc. versus the effort placed on working with or helping foreign nations. Some of the arguments boiled down, time and again, to Carter was an idiot without much factual support. However, the majority of the arguments were thought out quite well. The domestic affairs part was much less concrete and could have been summarized in several pages by aggregating the final paragraphs from each section.

3. 

   4 out of 5

   Mac Flanders –

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Paul Singbusch –

5. 

   4 out of 5

   Greg Kent –

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Michael –

7. 

   4 out of 5

   Grayman –

8. 

   4 out of 5

   Thomas Tanel –

9. 

   4 out of 5

   Gonçalo –

10. 

    4 out of 5

    Steven Wall –

11. 

    4 out of 5

    John Mangan –

12. 

    5 out of 5

    Crosby Kemper –

13. 

    4 out of 5

    David –

14. 

    4 out of 5

    Heinlein Fan95 –

15. 

    4 out of 5

    Atul –

16. 

    5 out of 5

    Jennifer Gerlach –

17. 

    5 out of 5

    Ryan Coons –

18. 

    5 out of 5

    Michael Kubat –

19. 

    5 out of 5

    Wakefield Tolbert –

20. 

    4 out of 5

    Kevin –

21. 

    5 out of 5

    Chris –

22. 

    5 out of 5

    Scott –

23. 

    4 out of 5

    Steven "Neeebs" –

24. 

    4 out of 5

    Kenneth –

25. 

    4 out of 5

    Bob Griffith –

26. 

    5 out of 5

    Jeff –

27. 

    5 out of 5

    David Poortinga –

28. 

    5 out of 5

    Samantha –

29. 

    4 out of 5

    Jermaine Jiang –

30. 

    4 out of 5

    Walter –