Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political Philosophy (review)

184 SAIS Review WINTER-SPRING 1994 ratios far above Western norms, and a population growth rate of greater than two percent, are very serious problems. Yet Henze essentially discounts them in his analysis of domestic economic factors. No Turkish government seems willing to adopt a restrictive stabilization policy or a large-scale privatization program to reduce the budget-devouring state sector, because doing so is politically dangerous. Turkey must make a determined effort to fix its serious economic difficulties if it wants to command regional influence with nations diat are, in most cases, economically poor and subject to influence from far richer industrialized nations as well. Other difficulties widi the analysis stem from developments in die region since die book's publication. President Turgut Ozal was a major force in reformulating Turkey's foreign policy. He decided to support the West in die GulfWar, giving new life, albeit perhaps brief, to Turkey's value to the West. Since Ozal's death in early 1993, Turkey has returned to an inward focus, which may lead to a retreat into the past consen'ative nature ofTurkish foreign policy. Events in the region may reinforce this direction. Fuller and Lesser also seem to discount Russia in much ofdie analysis, noting simply that die threat had waned and diatTurkey did not border on the former Soviet Union. Now however, Turkey does border on the Russian-dominated Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Furthermore, after replacing the proTurkey President Ebulfez Elcibey, die current Azeri President Geidat Aliyev, an exCommunist looked to Russia instead ofTurkey to help deal with Armenian troubles and joined the CIS in September 1993. Georgian President Edward Shevardnadze's call to Moscow for assistance in a losing battle with Georgian opposition forces contributes to the feeling that at least in the Caucuses, Russia appears to be the dominant power broker, not Tutkey. The enthusiasm that Turkey held towards the Central Asia tepublics has also waned. Russia is still the hegemon in that region, and the industrialized nations are quickly forging their own economic and political links with die resource-rich but economically poor republics. These economic and regional factors, combined with the current state ofinternal Russian politics, are persuasive arguments for a more limited Turkish role in the region than that envisioned in this analysis. Around the Cragged Hill: A Personal and Political PhilosophyBy George F. Kennan. New York, NY: W. W. Norton and Company, 1993. 272pp. $22.95/Hardcover. Reviewed by Philip Johnston. Mr. Johnston holds a BA from the University of Michigan and is an MA candidate at SAIS. In his latest work Around the Cragged Hill, George Kennan endeavors to address critics' and admirers' questions regarding his apparent lack ofa coherent personal or political philosophy. Uncertain whether his life's work as a diplomat and scholar has been guided by philosophically consistent principles, Kennan nevertheless attempts to oudine some ofhis "aesthetic intellectual preferences," ifnot analytical precepts, in this self-described "literary effort." In so doing, he overcomes a natural reluctance to engage in theoretical abstraction and produces a collection of critical appraisals which BOOK REVIEWS 185 expound broadly on perennial and contemporary problems confronting humanity and American society. Kennan opens his work with a depiction of man as die "cracked vessel," perpetually struggling between his baser instincts—sexual desire, avarice and vanity— and the intrinsic need "underlying the entire historical development ofcivilization" to redeem human life dirough order, dignity, beauty and charity. Employing this understanding ofhuman nature as a point ofdeparture, Kennan expresses a variety of views on the essence ofgovernment, ideology and the nation. Throughout much of this work Kennan displays a deep-seeded rejection of Marxism and the remnants ofMarxist egalitarian thinking on die modem European welfare state. To some extent his views reflect a more general view ofhuman nature. "Man's tragic flaw," he suggests, is innate and, therefore, inappropriately addressed "by any purely materialistic ideological commitment" For the most part, however, Kennan's criticisms focus on the consequences of die excessive pursuit of egalitarianism. His views do not reflect the beliefdiat social injustice does not exist or that die free enterprise system is sufficient to handle all problems. Indeed, he insists that government restraints must be...