Author in Honolulu calls
America a ‘rogue nation’
Best-selling author Clyde Prestowitz criticized the U.S. government's international relations strategy in a speech yesterday in Honolulu.
"The U.S. is increasingly seen by the rest of world as a rogue nation. We're squandering enormous reservoirs of good will that other countries have toward us because of our unilateral policies and actions," said Prestowitz in an interview after the speech.
Prestowitz's book, "Rogue Nation," is No. 7 on the Washington Post's hardcover, nonfiction list. He is president of the Economic Strategy Institute in Washington D.C., and spoke to the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council and Pacific Basin Economic Council yesterday at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
He said the United States is losing credibility and good relations with other countries because of "our failure to be what we say we are."
"We preach democracy, but some of our best friends are dictators. We preach peace but we make war," he said. One example of U.S. failure is the Iraq war, according to Prestowitz.
The United States lost credibility when it declared war on Iraq without U.N. support, he said.
"We overplayed the threat of weapons of mass destruction and found out we were wrong. Now it's almost impossible to act unilaterally again," he said.
Prestowitz, who was a Honolulu Star-Bulletin reporter in 1964, also criticized the government's handling of international relations, saying that the United States should strive to develop "stronger, more equal partnerships."
The current policy is "overwhelming dominance," he said, adding that the United States cannot achieve its objectives by itself. "We live in a world in which our economic performance depends on other countries," he said.
