Power Rules Analysis

Driven by the developing international world, America can no longer boast the global dominance it once claimed. In order to regain legitimacy within domestic and global power, the United States approach to foreign policies must adapt to the new political and economic frameworks of the world. Proclaimed foreign policy mastermind, Leslie H. Gelb has taken on this issue directly by presenting ideas on how successfully incorporating this change for U.S. foreign policy is obtainable. Throughout the pages of his book, Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue American Foreign Policy, Gelb offers logical evidence on how America can reclaim the true connotation of power.
Exercising power to its fullest potential requires a political strategy and global approach that both accept the realities of the century, and fulfill the requirements of American interests. However, the current national strategy is something Gelb believes, is bound to fail. Without a precise and logical plan of action, Gelb states, “there can be no sense of attainable objectives and no to plan wield power effectively and blunt the power of opponents” (Gelb). Washington’s currently implemented foreign approaches, such as acting multilaterally and providing the UN with more global responsibility, lack the vitality and potential to prove successful for the future of American foreign policy.

The twenty-first century has surfaced a new chaotic and demanding world that has become more and more of a security issue to the United States. Gelb addresses the principle irony within international affairs by questioning why the United States, known as the most powerful nation in the world, finds itself militarily and economically challenged by foreign states. He believes this power change is majorly linked to not only unrealistic American foreign policy priorities, but heavily on the underlying, yet apparent rise of intercontinental economic growth. “The enormous growth in the frequency and volume of business and financial exchanges worldwide certainly qualifies as a revolution” (Gelb). He continues to say that the deemed “revolution” does not totally change the rules of power, but rather proves the reality of the new economic patterns, and how they will affect the world’s foreign policy makers. Chinese leaders, Gelb points out, “understand the importance of priorities and don’t allow anything to divert them from promoting their internal economic growth and maintaining domestic stability” (Gelb). Comparing the Chinese strategy to President Bush’s seemingly erratic call to invade Iraq before he successfully controlled Afghanistan could perhaps be seen as a direct misapplication of power and the reason the world’s affairs are becoming too much for the United States to handle.
Gelb believes that U.S. foreign policy is off track; and the nations economy, not launching preemptive terror attacks, should be the main focus of Washington. The economy, Gelb points out, is the absolute basis of democracy and international power; and the recovery of the American economy is the true solution to its being able to solve international matters, not military force, as it had been in the past.



Collective Good - A good (the commons) that cannot be divided according to those who pay or do not pay.

Free-Rider - Someone who benefits from something but does not pay the costs.