Abstract
The book titled “The Dispensable Nation: American Foreign Policy in Retreat” is written by Vali Nasr who is a renowned American academic and foreign policy expert of Iranian origin. The author has previously served as a senior advisor to late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke at the State Department’s office of Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan (SRAP) from 2009 to 2011. The author is currently serving as the dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at John Hopkins University and has been the author of several bestselling books on Muslim World.
This book is essentially about three interrelated issues in US foreign Policy. One, waning US influence in the world, second, threat of other international players, particularly China, in filling the leadership vacuum in critical regions of the world and third, increasing failure of United States to shape the outcome of Arab Spring, a phenomenon described by the author as a destabilizing force for American influence in the region.
Contrary to the perception one might get from the title of the book, Vali Nasr has maintained in this book that US is not a declining global power but instead there has been a surge in challenges confronting the US in the critical regions of the world which are Middle East, South Asia and Asia – Pacific.