Beyond the Water's Edge - by Paul Pillar (Paperback)

About the Book

Paul R. Pillar examines how and why partisanship has undermined U.S. foreign policy, especially over the past three decades.

Book Synopsis

Intense partisanship is a familiar part of the contemporary United States, but its consequences do not stop at the country's borders. The damage now extends to U.S. relations with the rest of the world. Too often, political leaders place their own party's interest in gaining and keeping power ahead of the national interest.

Paul R. Pillar examines how and why partisanship has undermined U.S. foreign policy, especially over the past three decades. Placing present-day discord in historical perspective going back to the beginning of the republic, Beyond the Water's Edge shows that although the corrupting effects of partisan divisions are not new, past leaders were often able to overcome them. Recent social and political trends and developments including the end of the Cold War, however, have contributed to a surge of corrosive partisanship. Pillar demonstrates that its costs range from the prolongation of war and crisis to the intrusion of foreign influence and the undermining of democracy. He explores the ways other governments respond to inconsistency in U.S. foreign policy, the consequences of domestic division for U.S. global leadership, and how the corruption of American democracy also weakens democracy worldwide. Pillar considers possible remedies but draws the sobering conclusion that entrenched political sectarianism makes their adoption unlikely. Offering insightful analysis of the decline of U.S. foreign relations, Beyond the Water's Edge is an important book for all readers concerned about the state of the American political system.

Review Quotes

Beyond the Water's Edge presents an ominous warning from one of the country's most respected former national security officials, chronicling the way that domestic polarization has progressively undermined American foreign policy and weakened the United States.--Francis Fukuyama, author of Liberalism and Its Discontents

An urgent cautionary tale about the very real dangers that arise from putting party and personal power above national interest. Pillar distinguishes genuine disagreements over what is best for the nation from the increasingly evident exploitation and exacerbation of polarization to demonize opposition and provoke outrage. Effective foreign policy cannot survive in such an atmosphere, and neither can democracy.--Suzanne E. Spaulding, director, Defending Democratic Institutions Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies

For years, Paul Pillar has been among America's most thoughtful and independent-minded commentators on international affairs. Now he's tackled a crucial problem: The way partisanship undermines U.S. foreign policy. Many Americans know our democracy is in trouble. This book trenchantly lays out the consequences for America's relationship with the rest of the world.--Peter Beinart, author of The Crisis of Zionism

Paul Pillar delivers another elegant, clear-headed analysis of American foreign policymaking and its flaws. He sees a toxic form of partisanship as a recurrent pathology in U.S. history with particular danger for our role in the world today. A sober and essential read.--Ellen Laipson, George Mason University

Through original and compelling accounts of the political dynamics associated with major foreign policy debates, Pillar provides an in-depth historical account of ebbs and flows in the importance of partisan considerations as a shaper of foreign policy in the United States.--Jordan Tama, author of Terrorism and National Security Reform: How Commissions Can Drive Change During Crises

About the Author

Paul R. Pillar is a nonresident senior fellow of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and a nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He served in several senior positions in the U.S. intelligence community and is a retired officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. His previous Columbia University Press books are Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, 9/11, and Misguided Reform (2011) and Why America Misunderstands the World: National Experience and Roots of Misperception (2016).