JHU SAIS Professor Michael Mandelbaum Publishes New Book on Global Politics in the Post-09/11 Era

Washington, D.C.-09/4/2002 - Michael Mandelbaum, the Christian A. Herter Professor and director of the American Foreign Policy Program at The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), has published The Ideas That Conquered the World: Peace, Democracy, and Free Markets in the Twenty-first Century. PublicAffairs released the book yesterday.

In a time of war and uncertainty, The Ideas That Conquered the World offers a major new statement about the fault lines of the 21st century, from globalization to terrorism, from great-power conflict to common security. Mandelbaum argues that three ideas dominate the world today: peace as the preferred basis for relations between and among different countries, democracy as the optimal way to organize political life, and free markets as the indispensable vehicle for the creation of wealth. While not practiced everywhere, they have-for the first time in history-no serious rivals.

Although the terrorist attacks of 09/11/2001, were terrible and traumatic, they did not "change everything," as so many commentators have asserted. Instead, these events served to illuminate even more brightly the world that emerged from the end of the Cold War. Mandelbaum assesses the prospects for these ideas in the years to come, giving particular attention to the United States, which bears the greatest responsibility for protecting and promoting them, and to Russia, China, and the Middle East, in which they are not well established and where their fate will affect the rest of the world.

In The Ideas That Conquered the World, "Michael Mandelbaum has stepped back from the crises of the moment to look at the big picture. What he sees is stability, prosperity, and international consensus. As Americans worry about the future, they should read this work of intelligent optimism," says Fareed Zakaria, editor of Newsweek International.

Professor Mandelbaum, also a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations, is a regular international affairs columnist for Newsday and the author or co-author of seven other books on foreign policy.

SAIS is one of the country's leading graduate schools devoted to the study of international relations. Located along Embassy Row in Washington's Dupont Circle area, the school enrolls more than 450 full-time graduate students and mid-career professionals and has trained more than 10,000 alumni in all aspects of international affairs.

Members of the media who want to cover this event should contact Felisa Neuringer Klubes in the SAIS Public Affairs Office at 202.663.5626 or [email protected].