Overview

In Unintended Consequences Ian J. Bickerton and Kenneth J. Hagan describe and analyse the unintended consequences of ten major wars fought by the United States, pointing out critical turning points in the conflicts and the remarkable similarity of dilemmas that followed the conclusion of hostilities. The effect is to demonstrate that the unintended consequences of the wars not only outweighed the intended consequences in shaping subsequent events, they produced sharp and significant shifts in United States foreign, military and domestic policy. Most wars embarked upon by the United States when measured against this criterion were not only catastrophic and destructive, they were avoidable, unnecessary and unpredictable in outcome. Once they understand this reality, Americans concerned with contemporary foreign and military policy can approach Iraq, and any prospective conflict, with greater sophistication. More importantly, policy-makers thinking of undertaking wars in the future may be made more cautious and circumspect in their planning than were those who launched the war in Iraq. It will also prove to be an invaluable corrective to the traditional views of American wars to which we are routinely exposed.

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9781861893109

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Highly relevant. The two authors give an informative summary of the cause and course of American war since 1775, and then analyse their consequences. . . . Essential reading. --Richard Broinowski Australian Book Review (11/01/2007)

This is an imaginative, wonderfully written but sober satire on the conceits of an age whose leaders still suppose that war is the way to power over others. Unintended Consequences identifies with the tradition of great scholarship that stretches from Adam Ferguson to Hannah Arendt, in order to show how and why the greatest military power in human history does not know why it does what it does. Bickerton and Hagan brilliantly show that American military actions have typically had effects quite different from what their leaders have said, or imagined. And so Unintended Consequences cleverly helps us grasp why the present Bush administration is sleepwalking its way through problems of its own making-and why, disturbingly, it seems to want nothing more than to bequeath a global crisis to the next administration. -John Keane, professor of politics and director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster, London

Author Information

Ian J. Bickerton (Author) Ian J. Bickerton is Associate Professor of History at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He is the author of many books, including Unintended Consequences: The United States at War (2007), published by Reaktion. And The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History (Reaktion, 2009). Kenneth J. Hagan (Author) Kenneth J. Hagan is Professor of Strategy at the US Naval War College, Monterey, California, and co-author of American Foreign Relations: A History (6th edn, 2004).

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