The Reluctant Sheriff; The United States After the Cold War

New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 2001. Fourth Printing stated]. Trade paperback. Good. [6], 148 pages. Wraps. Name in ink on half title page. Chapter notes. Index. A little underlining and marginal marks noted on page 3 only. Richard Nathan Haass (born July 28, 1951) is an American diplomat. He has been president of the Council on Foreign Relations since July 2003, prior to which he was Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State and a close advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell in the George W. Bush administration. Haass served at the Department of Defense from 1979 to 1980, and at the Department of State from 1981 to 1985. From 1989 to 1993, he was Special Assistant to United States President George H. W. Bush and National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs. In 1991, Haass received the Presidential Citizens Medal for helping to develop and explain U.S. policy during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. The Senate approved Haass as a candidate for the position of ambassador and he has been U.S. Coordinator for the Future of Afghanistan. He succeeded George J. Mitchell as the United States Special Envoy for Northern Ireland to help the peace process in Northern Ireland, for which he received the State Department's Distinguished Service Award. At the end of 2003, Mitchell Reiss succeeded him as special envoy. In late 2013, Haass returned to Northern Ireland to chair inter-party talks aimed at addressing some of the unresolved issues from the peace process such as parades, flags and "the past". When first published it had been seven years since the end of the Cold War, and still there was no name for the present era, much less an American foreign policy to replace the prior doctrine of containment. The Reluctant Sheriff fills this void. It is the first book to provide a comprehensive understanding of the post-Cold War world and a compass to help the United States navigate it. Richard Haass proposes that the United States adopt a new foreign policy, "regulation", and work to promote order in an often unruly world. Haass suggests that the United States will often need to assume the role of global sheriff, forging coalitions or posses of states and others for specific tasks. Haass also argues that Americans need to resist the lure of isolationism and maintain spending on defense, intelligence, foreign aid, and diplomacy at current (and affordable) levels. He warns that anything less risks squandering the spoils of winning the Cold War, and setting the stage for a new era of dangerous global competition.