Deterring Democracy

In this highly praised and widely debated book, Noam Chomsky, America's leading dissident intellectual, offers a revelatory portrait of the American empire and the danger it poses for democracy, both at home and abroad.

Chomsky details the major shift in global politics that has left the United States unchallenged as the preeminent military power even as its economic might has declined drastically in the face of competition from Germany and Japan. Deterring Democracy points to the potentially catastrophic consequences of this new imbalance, and reveals a world in which the United States exploits its advantage ruthlessly to enforce its national interests -- from Nicaragua to the Philippines, Panama to the Middle East. The new world order (in which the New World gives the orders) has arrived.

Audacious in argument and ambitious in scope, Deterring Democracy is an essential guide to democratic prospects in the perilous 1990s.

"Deterring Democracy is a volatile, serious contribution to the debate over America's role as the globe's sole remaining superpower."
-- San Francisco Chronicle

"Chomsky is the Left's answer to William F. Buckley."
-- Los Angeles Times

"A compendious and thought-provoking work..."
--The New Statesman

"Noam Chomsky...is a major scholarly resource. Not to have read [him]...is to court genuine ignorance."
--The Nation