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Security First: For a Muscular, Moral Foreign Policy, by Amitai Etzioni, offers a promising effort to transcend the sterile debate between realism and idealism in U.S. foreign policy by arguing that the pursuit of security is a precondition to the longer-term objective of promoting democracy and human rights. Although conceptually appealing as a way to prioritize among potentially competing objectives, the book struggles with thorny problems of implementation that plague real world policy makers, including how to deal with the nuclear threats posed by North Korea and Iran, how to improve counterterrorism cooperation by ambivalent partners like Pakistan and when to intervene in the case of failed states.

The Iraq war clearly has had a sharply chilling effect on transatlantic publics' regard for one another. Whether the previous sense of solidarity can be restored in the future will depend on the policies that governments on both sides adopt in the crucial months to come. Developing a new, sustainable transatlantic relationship will require a series of deliberate decisions an both sides of the Atlantic - a partnership of choice, not necessity. For the United States, this means avoiding the temptation, offered by our unprecedented strength, to go it alone in pursuit of narrowly defined national interests. For Europe, the new partnership will require a willingness ta accept that the United States plays a uniquely valuable role as a leader in a world where power still matters, and that a commitment to a rule-based international order does not obviate the need to act decisively against those who do not share that vision. (Survival / SWP)