Alliance Curse : How America Lost the Third World

Alliance Curse provides a needed rethinking of the cold war legacy by which the United States supported a series of autocratic regimes in the developing world. It is only now that we can understand the full long-term costs of these alliances, and the way that they harmed U.S. interests in the post-cold war world. Hilton Root has provided a valuable service in demonstrating how American ideals and interests should have been more closely aligned. --Francis Fukuyama, author of America at the Crossroads

Hilton Root has written a brilliant and provocative book on the unintended though logical consequences of American interventions in the developing world. His penetrating analysis provides a sobering but valuable lesson on how to avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future. --Minxin Pei, Senior Associate, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Root's prescriptions for American foreign policy less focus on military security, more on economic development and social reform are well-grounded and compelling. --Publishers Weekly