New Wine and Old Bottles: International Politics and Ethical Discourse (review)

Book Reviews 101 their business" (237). But if Kahn had little effect on "public policy or anything else," then why spend a chapter discussing his writings? In another rather confusing twist, Brands claims, as mentioned above, that Kennan evolved from a vindicationist into an exemplarist, but then he declares that by the early fifties, Americans "were all vindicators" (198). More attention to analysis could have helped sort out these apparent contradictions. Brands approaches this book with a lively and engaging prose style that sometimes turns breezy, as reflected in chapter titles, "On Wisconsin: Madison and Points West," and "It Ain't Over till It's Over—And Not Even Then." Occasionally, the breeze becomes a gale-force wind, as in the following breathtaking description of the origins of neoconservatism: The origins of the new right of the 1970's lay in the remnants of the old left of the 1930's. The Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939 had shaken die faith of even dedicated American pro-Muscovites, and if the subsequent Grand Alliance restored some ofthat faith, the unimagined destructiveness of World War II severely challenged the assumptions of human rationality and human goodness upon which socialism and its tamer variants rested. It wasn't coincidence that the ranks of the neoconservatives included a sizable contingent of Jews, for whom the Nazi Holocaust had particular meaning, or that Commentary magazine, which provided the principal forum for neoconservative thought on foreign affairs, was published by the American Jewish Committee (265). In spite of a proclivity for hyperbole, Brands can be very lucid, as the summary in the book's closing pages illustrates (315-19). It is in this conclusion that a clearer delineation of the debate appears than anywhere else in the book. So what does America owe the world? Brands arrives at an appropriate, if middling conclusion, pointing out that both the vindicationists and exemplarists have been right to a degree and what we need is a foreign policy that incorporates the best elements of each. This may be what we have always had. In any event, this book will be a great help to students of history, foreign relations, and rhetorical studies in gaining deeper insights into the people and opinions that have shaped American policy towards the world. Michael J. Hostetler St. John's University, New York New Wine and Old Bottles: International Politics and Ethical Discourse. By Jean Bethke Elshtain. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998, pp. xviii + 81. $14.95 paper. As the current millenium draws to a close, scholars of many varieties are struggling to make sense of the preceding 100 years. The horrors of this century, ranging 102 Rhetoric & Public Affairs from Hitler's genocide to Stalin and Mao's purges to recent events in Yugoslavia and Africa, demonstrate that sovereignty and nationalism have had dramatic consequences for society. Jean Bethke Elshtain traces the religious and secular roots of these twin concepts. The discussion, a revision of her 1996 Hesburgh Lectures at the University of Notre Dame, will be of great interest to those who study sovereignty, nationalism, and the role (or absence thereof) that ethical behavior plays in the conduct of international affairs. As Raimo Värynen notes in his foreword, "Initially, sovereignty was intended to regulate not only relations between states but also, perhaps even more fundamentally , their internal conditions . . . (xi). In the first chapter of her book, Elshtain traces the historical lineage of sovereignty, from the religious writings of St. Augustine to the philosophical tracts of Thomas Hobbes. She notes that these writings differ greatly from the popular conception of sovereignty, which places restrictions on state behavior in the international system. Rather, sovereignty, with its mandate for non-interference in domestic affairs, has given free reign to many of the excesses witnessed in the past 100 years. As Elshtain comments at the beginning of her second chapter, "Nationalism is the great political passion of our time" (25). The legacy of sovereignty, she argues, has led to increased nationalist foci in the last century, and is the root cause of much of the misery it has engendered. It is in this regard, she maintains in her conclusion, that forgiveness...