Is America slipping? Has the greatest superpower in the world seen better days? James Cumes author of “America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of a superpower” (Publisher: BookSurge Publishing ISBN-10: 141963819X) thinks America is heading toward self–destruction.
Is America slipping? Has the greatest superpower in the world
seen better days? James Cumes author of “America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of a superpower” (Publisher: BookSurge Publishing ISBN-10: 141963819X) thinks America is heading toward self–destruction. “America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of a super power” is powerful, solid and eye-opening.
In a recent interview , the author said, "She (America) has lost her way and abandoned the thinking and the economic, democratic and idealistic ventures that formerly made her great. Lee Iacocca says that leadership is lacking. He’s right in that it’s been lacking in almost every field of American endeavor – politics, economics, social welfare and human rights, strategic policy and national security, peaceful change in a not-so- peaceful world – everything. But it’s even worse than that. Not only is leadership lacking but such leadership as there is in the United States has been leading a great country in the wrong direction. Instead of exercising its great capacity for economic and financial initiative, expressed in solid fixed-capital investment, surging productivity and unrivalled production, it has been chasing a fast buck, creating an American and indeed a world economy based on speculation, emulating the casino. National, corporate and household debt has been piling up, without any practical notion by almost anyone - certainly anyone in effective power – as to how the debt can ever be repaid. Indeed, concern seems to have been abandoned by most as to whether the massive debts need ever be repaid: let’s forget about them seems to be the watchword for many in the mainstream of economic and financial thinking and policymaking.…”
“America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of a superpower” is a book that may be the most important book of the year! Dr. Cumes suggests that nothing has been done by America’s politicians to effectively manage the flow of funds - or the flow of "liquidity" or credit - in any way sufficient to avoid what promises to be the most monumental financial devastation of all time. This ‘financial devastation’ would be global.
"America's Suicidal Statecraft" points out many issues with sound reason, logic and justification. Every point the author makes is backed up with valid analysis of America's problems; so are his proposed solutions.
Not so long ago, the United States was, despite some inevitable imperfections, one of the world's most admired, progressive and transparent democracies. That democracy has been increasingly corrupted over the years and America's capacity to carry out its role as a superpower - certainly as the world's single superpower - has been put gravely at risk. There are some major issues addressed in "America's Suicidal Statecraft" but one question that jumps up and bites the reader is the fact that America’s diplomacy may be second fiddle to force. The author says, “Diplomacy has largely given way to an obsession with force – and a tendency actively to arm much of the rest of the world with sophisticated armaments to bolster the only area of productive manufacturing activity – the military-industrial complex – that can be said to have been thriving in the United States in recent years."
While Dr Cumes identifies the risks, he also shows how America can possibly save itself from wreckage and self-destruction if it will be a superpower for peaceful change.
Dr Cumes outlines in detail, the policies and procedures whereby these solutions can be achieved and he still believes America is still a ‘Superpower’. “America is still – for the moment at least - a “Superpower”, the author says. “Its people still have the great potential they demonstrated so remarkably in the earlier part of the twentieth century; but we must remember that, even then, they were also capable of getting things wrong. The Great Depression hit the country and its people hard. Unemployment soared. Poverty stalked the most productive country on Earth. This time, when the debt and degeneration of the American economy bring about a collapse, some other economies, especially in East Asia, might be able to weather the storm much more effectively than the United States. They might suffer some damage but it might be they, rather than the United States who will emerge relatively more powerful than ever before. In other words, a global economic and financial crisis might this time confirm a changing of the guard and the replacement of the United States by another power or group of powers. That will almost certainly introduce a period of great global instability and danger, as many powers, heavily armed with sophisticated weapons of mass destruction maneuver to assume the mantle which the United States has negligently allowed to slip from its shoulders."
“America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of a superpower” is a remarkable achievement in modern day Non-Fiction. This book is a superb history lesson with a sincere professional message. Everyone who cares or has an interest in the future of the United States should read this book. Buy a copy of “America's Suicidal Statecraft: The self-destruction of a superpower” today!
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing ISBN-10: 141963819X
Review by Page One Literary www.pageonelit.com
About the Author: James Cumes is the author of “The Indigent Rich,” “Inflation,” and several other books on economics, history, government and human behaviour, as well as his acclaimed novel “Haverleigh.”
As an Ambassador and High Commissioner, he has had a colourful career around the world, rich in experience of war and peace, love and hate, the violence, greed and evil that move men and women, their lusts and, often, their care for others that can sometimes lead them to greatness.
James graduated in Arts (Queensland) and Diplomatic Studies (Canberra) and is a Doctor of Philosophy (London). After soldiering as a teenager in Papua and Dutch New Guinea in World War II and occupying diplomatic posts in Paris, Geneva, London, Bonn and Berlin, he became Ambassador to the European Union and several individual countries, High Commissioner to Nigeria and visiting Ambassador to a dozen other West African countries, Permanent Representative to the United Nations and UNIDO in Vienna, Governor on the Board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Australian representative at UN and other meetings around the world.
He has written a dozen books: on economics, history, philosophy and government and four novels. Because of its historical content and its recall of his wartime experiences, Haverleigh tends to be his favorite; but The Hedonists draws realistically on his diplomatic life, its shallow self-interest and sexual indulgence as well as its potential for more noble enterprise. Operation Equalizer is a warning of the ultimate terror, based especially on his background as Governor on the Board of IAEA.
He is married to an Austrian, Heide Schulte von Bäuminghaus who is herself a successful author, especially of the popular - and highly entertaining - Diplomatic Carousel. With their teenage daughter, Kim, they move between homes in Australia, Austria, Monaco and the South of France.
