Perilous Partners: The Benefits and Pitfalls of America's Alliances with Authoritarian Regimes

Despite the reference to "benefits" in the subtitle, few are described in this derisive Cato Institute treatise on post-WWII American foreign policy. Senior Cato fellow Carpenter (The Fire Next Door) and adjunct scholar Innocent tear into successive presidential administrations for pursuing relationships with authoritarian regimes throughout the world. For a country claiming to be based on "peace, democracy, individual liberty, and the rule of law," as Ronald Reagan put it, the actions of the U.S.%E2%80%94publicly and covertly%E2%80%94did not stay true to its founding ideals. Even Jimmy Carter, famous for his focus on human rights over the realpolitik of Nixon and Kissinger, comes under fire for not doing enough to distance the U.S. from human rights abusers, notably the Shah of Iran. The president who receives the least criticism is Bill Clinton, largely because his presidency fell after the Cold War and before the War on Terror. In the authors' opinion, the reasons given for aligning with repressive regimes were rarely vital to national interests, rather serving to justify interventionalism around the world. This lengthy read may be hard to swallow for some, but it will also be eye-opening to those confused by inconsistencies and discrepancies in American foreign policy over the last 70 years. (Sept.)