The Big Stick

The Limits of Soft Power and the Necessity of Military Force

By: Eliot A. Cohen

Narrated by: Bill Thatcher

Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

"Speak softly and carry a big stick", Theodore Roosevelt famously said in 1901 when the United States was emerging as a great power. It was the right sentiment, perhaps, in an age of imperial rivalry. But today many Americans doubt the utility of their global military presence, thinking it outdated, unnecessary, or even dangerous.

In The Big Stick, Eliot A. Cohen - a scholar and practitioner of international relations - disagrees. He argues that hard power remains essential for American foreign policy. While acknowledging that the United States must be careful about why, when, and how it uses force, he insists that its international role is as critical as ever, and armed force is vital to that role. Cohen explains that American leaders must learn to use hard power in new ways and for new circumstances. The rise of a well-armed China, Russia's conquest of Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, nuclear threats from North Korea and Iran, and the spread of radical Islamist movements like ISIS are some of the key threats to global peace. If the United States relinquishes its position as a strong but prudent military power and fails to accept its role as the guardian of a stable world order, we run the risk of unleashing disorder, violence, and tyranny on a scale not seen since the 1930s. The United States is still, as Madeleine Albright once dubbed it, "the indispensable nation".

©2016 Eliot A. Cohen (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

poignant analysis

the author looks at the multitude of factors going into the use if force to achieve national end states. It's not sensational or all that controversial in my opinion. a good read to give you something to Chew on.

Overall pretty good

The author made a lot of good points but he often doesn’t give good alternatives to the problems he identified and there are a few areas where I disagree. He feels the US military has an anti intellectual streak (I agree, and it is a serious problem) but he doesn’t offer any good ways to improve things. He does a very good job describing Chinese military strategy and its problems, but I think he overestimates the Chinese economy. He doesn’t do a good job differentiating between Al Qaida and Iranian backed groups and I think his view of the Iranian government is oversimplified. But he offers a very good alternative method fo fighting the war on terror. He also brings up a good point on the problem with the “tacticization” of GWAT strategy. He bashed the F-35, which is pretty standard, but while I agree it has problems, he doesn’t bring up the new capabilities it has and I think that it is a distracting aside that takes away from the overall quality of the book. I recommend everyone interested in contemporary military strategy read it.

extremely interesting

well conceived, well argued, well written and fundamentally easy to understand, even if you do not agree with all it's conclusions

Turn off the news, listen to this

This audio book is excellent for anyone who wants a thorough discussion of the problems that the United States faces and their potential solutions. The only reason that I gave it four stars is because the person reading the story had a raspy voice that was sometimes unpleasant to listen to.

dense writing and delivery made this a chore

I consider this would have been a very interesting subject but the density with which it was written and, in my experience, the general lack of variation in sentence structure and delivery made this one tough to work through.

Power Is a Swiss Army Knife, Not A Hammer

With the 2020 Elections as a backdrop, I pulled this down from my Audible Plus collection and was not disappointed. Having worn an uniform for most of ny adult life, I share Cohen's premise that soft power has its limits and that, while distasteful, today's geopolitical environment still needs hard power as a countermeasure to aggressive nation-states and transnational violent extremists. Discussing the near term threat of Russia, far term rise of China, and regional belligerents such as North Korea and Iran, Cohen articulates the threats that our national interests face and makes a strong case for the use of force in service to those interests. In the event of prolonged conflict in the 21st century, Cohen's strategy of modern warfare across surface, air, and cyber domains could work; however it would require a shift in mindset from both the American electorate and its leadership to taking a more flexible and patient view of war. Reading Cohen's work provides a somewhat murky, but useful, crystal ball for better understanding of 21st century warfare.

A well thought out, if imperfect, take on US foreign policy

This book makes a number of assertions echoed by figures high up in the defense establishment, that US military power is a vital and needed tool of foreign policy and that its current state is inadequate in terms of funding, education, and policy/doctrinal development. He offers evidence to counter many of the usual counter arguments such as that funding such endeavors would undermine the country economically or that the application of such power is generally destructive and best left out of the political equation. In this regard he offers a well researched take, backed up by what seems to be a solid array of facts and figures. For that reason I found this book interesting and found it written in a style that kept it engaging despite what some might consider dry subject matter. His arguments do not always hold as much water as I believe he would like, as, for example, when he uses the case of the Iraq war as evidence that clearly defined goals, criteria for success, and objective evaluation of results are impossible. I believe one might make just as firm of an argument that this case is perfect evidence why those things are so indispensable. His reasoning is similarly debatable on a number of occasions, but it is nonetheless a respectable and largely logical assessment of policy that should be understood by anyone who seeks to understand the foreign and defense policy of the US.

Two miles wide, 4 inches deep

Mr. Cohen makes a compelling point for American use of force as part of our foreign policy toolkit. While the chapters describing countering our adversaries was too sparse and general for my liking, other Chapters highlighting the futility of ambiguity, as well as decrying our lack of societal interest in rhetorical follow-through were extremely poignant.

I'd relisten again for those segments alone.

~U.S. Strategic Analyst

Battle Hymn of A Jingoistic Neocon Still in 19thC.

This book came out in 2016, so a considerable amount of the information in this book is already outdated as of this writing. The US has changed quite a bit ever since the pandemic, and so has the rest of the world. The analysis of other countries and the geopolitical alliances is simple naivete, and the orientalist attitude that the author has toward Asia is mind-blowingly archaic. This is not to mention how much the author displayed American Exceptionalist fervor throughout the chapters is pretty laughable, considering how hard it is to implement a small change in the country (i.e. building a single transit line downtown without squandering the public funds) but somehow still thinks that it's the other countries that are stagnant and unchanging. He would make you believe the leaders of other countries are simply stupid and incompetent and got to where they're through divine rights and not through wits and would not be able to successfully enact reforms.

Most of the information outlined here for the "analysis" is not anything new; they're simply regurgitated propaganda talking points you can find on any mainstream news outlet like Fox News & CNN. If anyone came here hoping to learn more about global Realpolitik and what it means for the regular citizens of this country, they would be sorely disappointed. Judging by some of the reviews though, the humdrum of the book is working wonders as intended.

Sorry, Mr. Cohen. We neither could not have won the Korean War nor could we have pushed back and fought the PLA in their own territories that border the Soviet Union, no matter how much you try to wave the wand for an alternate reality. Also, no. Clausewitz is not a superior military strategist than Sunzi.