Max Boot
Encyclopedia
Max Boot is an American
author
, consultant
, editorial
ist, lecturer
, and military historian. He has been a prominent advocate for American power. He once described his ideas as "American might to promote American ideals." He self-identifies as a conservative, once joking that "I grew up in the 1980s, when conservatism was cool". Boot worked as a writer and editor for Christian Science Monitor and then for The Wall Street Journal
in the 1990s. He is now Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
. He has written for numerous publications such as The Weekly Standard
, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times
and he has also authored well-reviewed books of military history.
. His parents, both Russian Jews, later emigrated from the Soviet Union
to Los Angeles
, where he was raised. Boot earned a Bachelor's Degree
in History from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1991, and a Master's Degree
in Diplomatic History from Yale University
in 1992. He started his journalistic career writing columns for the Berkeley student newspaper
The Daily Californian
. Boot and his family currently live in the New York area.
, a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard
and the Los Angeles Times
, and a regular contributor to other publications such as The Wall Street Journal
, The Washington Post
and The New York Times
. He blogs for Commentary Magazine on its page Contentions. He serves as a consultant to the U.S. military
and as a regular lecturer at U.S. military institutions such as the Army War College
and the Command and General Staff College
.
Boot worked as a writer and editor for The Christian Science Monitor
from 1992 to 1994. He moved to The Wall Street Journal
for the next eight years. He wrote an investigative column called 'Rule of Law' about legal issues. After a short, four year career with the column, he rose to the head position of the Journal's editorial board
.
In the middle of his career with the Journal, Boot wrote Out of Order, a critique of the American legal system for overreaching published by Basic Books
in 1998. He highlighted the Supreme Court cases of Brown v. Board of Education
(1954), which he labeled the 'Magna Carta
' of judicial activism
, and Romer v. Evans
(1996) as key examples, although he stated that he agreed with Brown's
result while opposing its reasoning. Boot wrote that judges have no authority to legislate or execute laws and are particularly ill-equipped to do so because of their lack of expertise in those policy questions. He stated that judges have unfairly expanded their domains for greater fame and influence, without regard for the wider socio-economic issues effected. The Washington Post
praised the book, and The Washington Times
also did so. Commentary ran a mixed review by Andrew C. McCarthy
that described the book as a polemical "stream of vitriol" and supporting some of its recommendations while panning others.
Boot left the Journal in 2002, and he then joined the Council of Foreign Relations. He became a 'Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow' with the group. His writings with the Council appeared in several publications such as The New York Post, The Times
, Financial Times
, and International Herald Tribune
in 2002.Boot wrote The Savage Wars of Peace: Small War and the Rise of American Power, a study of small wars in American history, with Basic Books
in 2002.
The book was named one of the best of the year by the Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. It won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation as the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps history, and has been placed on Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy professional reading lists.
He published his most recent work,War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today, an analysis of revolutions in military technology since 1500, in 2006. The book's central thesis is that a military succeeds when it has the dynamic, forward-looking structures and administration in place to exploit new technologies. It concludes that the U.S. military may lose its edge if it does not become flatter, less bureaucratic, and more decentralized. The book received praise from Josiah Bunting III
in The New York Times
, who called it "unusual and magisterial",
Boot served as a foreign policy adviser to Senator
John McCain
in his 2008 United States presidential election bid. He stated in an editorial in World Affairs Journal that he saw strong parallels between Theodore Roosevelt
and McCain
.
Boot appeared on the PBS
public affairs program Charlie Rose
alongside war correspondent Julian Barnes
of The Wall St. Journal on August 3, 2010. During Rose's
interview, Boot praised President Obama's decision to appoint General David Petraeus
as the ground commander of the Afghanistan campaign and he said that the conflict is winnable. He also mentioned that he has served as a civilian adviser to both Petraeus and his predecessor Stanley McCrystal, with fellow civilians Fred Kagan and Stephen Biddle
.
". He credits his economic views to his parent's experiences in leaving the Soviet Union
. He used to consider himself a social conservative, but he moderated his views over time. He opposes banning abortion
and banning human cloning
.
Boot vigorously supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq
and the 2007 surge
. He wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in April 2011 arguing that it is "in America's Interest to Stay in Iraq" because
"[h]aving active bases would allow us to project power and influence in the region."
During the Gaza war, Boot stated that Israel was morally justified to invade the Gaza Strip
. However, he also stated that Israel might not be making the right tactical or strategic decision and called its overall situation a "quagmire
". Boot also strongly supported NATO intervention to come to the aid of the Bosniaks
in the Yugoslav wars
, which he regarded as a just cause for humanitarian reasons
. He has criticized President Ronald Reagan
's decision to pull out of Lebanon
after the barracks bombing
as well as President Bill Clinton
's decision to pull out of Somalia
after the Battle of Mogadishu, viewing each as signs of American weakness and stepping stones towards the 9/11 attacks.
Boot dislikes the term "neoconservative" since he believes that it "has entirely lost its original meaning", but he does not mind being called one. He is "an influential neoconservative author and policy expert as well as a military historian," according to The New York Times
. Christian Science Monitor has labeled him a "self-described neocon". Boot describes his line of foreign policy thinking as "Wilsonian
". He has credited Presidents Theodore Roosevelt
, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan
as holding similar views. He has also stated that he believes in American exceptionalism
.
Boot supports what he calls American imperialism based on nation building and the pursuit of spreading democracy
across the non-Western world. He sees this as the only way to prevent another event like the 9/11 attacks. He has written, "[u]nlike 19th-century European colonialists, we would not aim to impose our rule permanently. Instead... occupation would be a temporary expedient to allow the people to get back on their feet". He advocates creating a formal Department of Peace alongside the current Department of Defense to promote democracy building abroad. He later stated in an interview that he thinks most Americans feel uncomfortable with being called an 'empire
', but that they would be willing to act like one regardless. He has said that he believes the U.S. must act as a world police agency since "[t]here is nobody else out there".
in The Weekly Standard on February 2005. Boot labeled Woods' views as a 'Bizarro world' given Woods' support for nullification
and the right of secession
as well as his opposition to U.S. participation in World War I
and II
. Boot also blasted Woods for what he saw as ignoring African-Americans' struggle for civil rights and ignoring the fact that Clinton's intervention in the Balkans stopped a potential genocide
. Woods responded in The American Conservative
in March. He cited Thomas Jefferson
in support for nullification
and he accused Boot of anti-Southern
prejudice. Woods also commented, "Since in my judgment Max Boot embodies everything that is wrong with modern conservatism, his opposition is about the best endorsement I could have asked for."
John Mearsheimer
and Stephen Walt
's controversial 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
named Boot as a neo-conservative 'pundit' that represented the Israeli lobby's
positions, notably within the Council of Foreign Relations. The authors argued that Boot and other figures dishonestly warp American foreign policy away from its national interest
. Boot has called their ideas "crazy". He has also remarked that American activists could not keep President Bill Clinton
from pressuring Prime Minister
Ehud Barak
during the Camp David summit, which he believes belies the idea of a powerful Israeli lobby.
In response to the 2011 Libyan uprising, Boot wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the United States should send an aircraft carrier
with "34 F/A-18F Super Hornets and 10 F/A-18C Hornets along with a full complement of electronic-warfare
aircraft" to Libya
in order to establish a no-fly zone
over that country. In addition, he argued that "It may also be necessary to send arms and Special Forces trainers to support the rebels," and that inaction would "reduce American power and prestige in ways that will do us incalculable long-term harm." Replying to Boot's arguments, Will Wilkinson
of The Economist
wrote that "there is no question that serious people do not deliberate like this" and that "crediting this sort of keyboard brinkmanship has already done Americans (and Iraqis and Afghans) incalculable harm."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, consultant
Consultant
A consultant is a professional who provides professional or expert advice in a particular area such as management, accountancy, the environment, entertainment, technology, law , human resources, marketing, emergency management, food production, medicine, finance, life management, economics, public...
, editorial
Editorial
An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...
ist, lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
, and military historian. He has been a prominent advocate for American power. He once described his ideas as "American might to promote American ideals." He self-identifies as a conservative, once joking that "I grew up in the 1980s, when conservatism was cool". Boot worked as a writer and editor for Christian Science Monitor and then for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
in the 1990s. He is now Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
. He has written for numerous publications such as The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
and he has also authored well-reviewed books of military history.
Personal life
Boot was born in 1969 in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. His parents, both Russian Jews, later emigrated from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, where he was raised. Boot earned a Bachelor's Degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in History from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1991, and a Master's Degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in Diplomatic History from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1992. He started his journalistic career writing columns for the Berkeley student newspaper
Student newspaper
A student newspaper is a newspaper run by students of a university, high school, middle school, or other school. These papers traditionally cover local and, primarily, school or university news....
The Daily Californian
The Daily Californian
The Daily Californian is an independent, student-run newspaper that serves the University of California, Berkeley campus and its surrounding community. It is published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and twice a week during the summer...
. Boot and his family currently live in the New York area.
Career
Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
, a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. Its founding publisher, News Corporation, debuted the title September 18, 1995. Currently edited by founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes, the Standard has been described as a "redoubt of...
and the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, and a regular contributor to other publications such as The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. He blogs for Commentary Magazine on its page Contentions. He serves as a consultant to the U.S. military
Military of the United States
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
and as a regular lecturer at U.S. military institutions such as the Army War College
U.S. Army War College
The United States Army War College is a United States Army school located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 500 acre campus of the historic Carlisle Barracks...
and the Command and General Staff College
Command and General Staff College
The United States Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas is a graduate school for United States Army and sister service officers, interagency representatives, and international military officers. The college was established in 1881 by William Tecumseh Sherman as a...
.
Boot worked as a writer and editor for The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
from 1992 to 1994. He moved to The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
for the next eight years. He wrote an investigative column called 'Rule of Law' about legal issues. After a short, four year career with the column, he rose to the head position of the Journal's editorial board
Editorial board
The editorial board is a group of people, usually at a publication, who dictate the tone and direction the publication's editorial policy will take.- Board makeup :...
.
In the middle of his career with the Journal, Boot wrote Out of Order, a critique of the American legal system for overreaching published by Basic Books
Basic Books
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1952 and located in New York. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.-History:...
in 1998. He highlighted the Supreme Court cases of Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
(1954), which he labeled the 'Magna Carta
Magna Carta
Magna Carta is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions, which included the most direct challenges to the monarch's authority to date. The charter first passed into law in 1225...
' of judicial activism
Judicial activism
Judicial activism describes judicial ruling suspected of being based on personal or political considerations rather than on existing law. It is sometimes used as an antonym of judicial restraint. The definition of judicial activism, and which specific decisions are activist, is a controversial...
, and Romer v. Evans
Romer v. Evans
Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620 , is a landmark United States Supreme Court case dealing with civil rights and state laws. It was the first Supreme Court case to deal with LGBT rights since Bowers v...
(1996) as key examples, although he stated that he agreed with Brown's
Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 , was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which...
result while opposing its reasoning. Boot wrote that judges have no authority to legislate or execute laws and are particularly ill-equipped to do so because of their lack of expertise in those policy questions. He stated that judges have unfairly expanded their domains for greater fame and influence, without regard for the wider socio-economic issues effected. The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
praised the book, and The Washington Times
The Washington Times
The Washington Times is a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It was founded in 1982 by Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon, and until 2010 was owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate associated with the...
also did so. Commentary ran a mixed review by Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy
Andrew C. McCarthy III is a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. A Republican, he is most notable for leading the 1995 terrorism prosecution against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and eleven others. The defendants were convicted of the 1993 World Trade Center...
that described the book as a polemical "stream of vitriol" and supporting some of its recommendations while panning others.
Boot left the Journal in 2002, and he then joined the Council of Foreign Relations. He became a 'Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow' with the group. His writings with the Council appeared in several publications such as The New York Post, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
, and International Herald Tribune
International Herald Tribune
The International Herald Tribune is a widely read English language international newspaper. It combines the resources of its own correspondents with those of The New York Times and is printed at 38 sites throughout the world, for sale in more than 160 countries and territories...
in 2002.Boot wrote The Savage Wars of Peace: Small War and the Rise of American Power, a study of small wars in American history, with Basic Books
Basic Books
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1952 and located in New York. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.-History:...
in 2002.
The book was named one of the best of the year by the Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. It won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation as the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps history, and has been placed on Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy professional reading lists.
He published his most recent work,War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today, an analysis of revolutions in military technology since 1500, in 2006. The book's central thesis is that a military succeeds when it has the dynamic, forward-looking structures and administration in place to exploit new technologies. It concludes that the U.S. military may lose its edge if it does not become flatter, less bureaucratic, and more decentralized. The book received praise from Josiah Bunting III
Josiah Bunting III
Josiah Bunting III is an American educator. He has been a military officer, college president, and an author and speaker on education and Western culture.-Biography:...
in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, who called it "unusual and magisterial",
Boot served as a foreign policy adviser to Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
in his 2008 United States presidential election bid. He stated in an editorial in World Affairs Journal that he saw strong parallels between Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
.
Boot appeared on the PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
public affairs program Charlie Rose
Charlie Rose (talk show)
Charlie Rose is an American television interview show, with Charlie Rose as executive producer, executive editor, and host. The show is syndicated...
alongside war correspondent Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnes is a contemporary English writer, and winner of the 2011 Man Booker Prize, for his book The Sense of an Ending...
of The Wall St. Journal on August 3, 2010. During Rose's
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. is an American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991 he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993...
interview, Boot praised President Obama's decision to appoint General David Petraeus
David Petraeus
David Howell Petraeus is the current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, sworn in on September 6, 2011. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus was a four-star general serving over 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander...
as the ground commander of the Afghanistan campaign and he said that the conflict is winnable. He also mentioned that he has served as a civilian adviser to both Petraeus and his predecessor Stanley McCrystal, with fellow civilians Fred Kagan and Stephen Biddle
Stephen Biddle
Stephen Biddle is an American author, historian, columnist, and pundit whose work concentrates on U.S. foreign policy. He is perhaps best known for his award-winning 2004 book Military Power: Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle, published through Princeton University Press. He also has...
.
Beliefs
In general, Boot considers himself to be a "natural contrarianContrarian
In finance, a contrarian is one who attempts to profit by investing in a manner that differs from the conventional wisdom, when the consensus opinion appears to be wrong....
". He credits his economic views to his parent's experiences in leaving the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. He used to consider himself a social conservative, but he moderated his views over time. He opposes banning abortion
Abortion in the United States
Abortion in the United States has been legal in every state since the United States Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, on January 22, 1973...
and banning human cloning
Human cloning
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...
.
Boot vigorously supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
and the 2007 surge
Iraq War troop surge of 2007
In the context of the Iraq War, the surge refers to United States President George W. Bush's 2007 increase in the number of American troops in order to provide security to Baghdad and Al Anbar Province....
. He wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed in April 2011 arguing that it is "in America's Interest to Stay in Iraq" because
"[h]aving active bases would allow us to project power and influence in the region."
During the Gaza war, Boot stated that Israel was morally justified to invade the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...
. However, he also stated that Israel might not be making the right tactical or strategic decision and called its overall situation a "quagmire
Quagmire
Quagmire may refer to:* Water infused earth or a bog. Solid ground may turn to quagmire following substantial rainfall.* By extension, a situation that is difficult to get out of.* A tactical defense made when defending a territory close to a river...
". Boot also strongly supported NATO intervention to come to the aid of the Bosniaks
Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs are a South Slavic ethnic group, living mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a smaller minority also present in other lands of the Balkan Peninsula especially in Serbia, Montenegro and Croatia...
in the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
, which he regarded as a just cause for humanitarian reasons
Humanitarian intervention
Humanitarian intervention "refers to a state using military force against another state when the chief publicly declared aim of that military action is ending human-rights violations being perpetrated by the state against which it is directed."...
. He has criticized President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's decision to pull out of Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
after the barracks bombing
1983 Beirut barracks bombing
The Beirut Barracks Bombing occurred during the Lebanese Civil War, when two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen...
as well as President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's decision to pull out of Somalia
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
after the Battle of Mogadishu, viewing each as signs of American weakness and stepping stones towards the 9/11 attacks.
Boot dislikes the term "neoconservative" since he believes that it "has entirely lost its original meaning", but he does not mind being called one. He is "an influential neoconservative author and policy expert as well as a military historian," according to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Christian Science Monitor has labeled him a "self-described neocon". Boot describes his line of foreign policy thinking as "Wilsonian
Wilsonian
Wilsonianism or Wilsonian are words used to describe a certain type of ideological perspectives on foreign policy. The term comes from the ideology of United States President Woodrow Wilson and his famous Fourteen Points that he believed would help create world peace if implemented.Common...
". He has credited Presidents Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
as holding similar views. He has also stated that he believes in American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism
American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other countries. In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation," and developing a uniquely American ideology, based on liberty,...
.
Boot supports what he calls American imperialism based on nation building and the pursuit of spreading democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
across the non-Western world. He sees this as the only way to prevent another event like the 9/11 attacks. He has written, "[u]nlike 19th-century European colonialists, we would not aim to impose our rule permanently. Instead... occupation would be a temporary expedient to allow the people to get back on their feet". He advocates creating a formal Department of Peace alongside the current Department of Defense to promote democracy building abroad. He later stated in an interview that he thinks most Americans feel uncomfortable with being called an 'empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....
', but that they would be willing to act like one regardless. He has said that he believes the U.S. must act as a world police agency since "[t]here is nobody else out there".
Debates and disputes
Boot published a critique of paleoconservative historian Thomas E. Woods' book The Politically Incorrect Guide to American HistoryThe Politically Incorrect Guide to American History
The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, by Thomas Woods, was published in December 2004. This book was the first in the Politically Incorrect Guide series published by Regnery Publishing, who view the series as covering topics without consideration for political correctness. The book...
in The Weekly Standard on February 2005. Boot labeled Woods' views as a 'Bizarro world' given Woods' support for nullification
Nullification (U.S. Constitution)
Nullification is a legal theory that a State has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional...
and the right of secession
Secession in the United States
Secession in the United States can refer to secession of a state from the United States, secession of part of a state from that state to form a new state, or secession of an area from a city or county....
as well as his opposition to U.S. participation in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Boot also blasted Woods for what he saw as ignoring African-Americans' struggle for civil rights and ignoring the fact that Clinton's intervention in the Balkans stopped a potential genocide
Bosnian Genocide
The term Bosnian Genocide refers to either the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995 or the ethnic cleansing campaign that took place throughout areas controlled by the Bosnian Serb Army during the 1992–1995 Bosnian War....
. Woods responded in The American Conservative
The American Conservative
The American Conservative is a monthly U.S. opinion magazine published by Ron Unz. Its first editor was Scott McConnell, his successors being Kara Hopkins and the present incumbent, Daniel McCarthy....
in March. He cited Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
in support for nullification
Nullification (U.S. Constitution)
Nullification is a legal theory that a State has the right to nullify, or invalidate, any federal law which that state has deemed unconstitutional...
and he accused Boot of anti-Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
prejudice. Woods also commented, "Since in my judgment Max Boot embodies everything that is wrong with modern conservatism, his opposition is about the best endorsement I could have asked for."
John Mearsheimer
John Mearsheimer
John J. Mearsheimer is an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. He is an international relations theorist. Known for his book on offensive realism, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, more recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and publishing...
and Stephen Walt
Stephen Walt
Stephen Martin Walt is a professor of international affairs at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. Among his most prominent works are and . He coauthored The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy with John Mearsheimer.-Education and career:In 1983, he received a Ph.D. in...
's controversial 2007 book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy is the title of a book by John Mearsheimer, Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, Professor of International Relations at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, published in late August 2007...
named Boot as a neo-conservative 'pundit' that represented the Israeli lobby's
Israel lobby in the United States
The Israel lobby is a term used to describe the diverse coalition of those who, as individuals and as groups, seek and have sought to influence the foreign policy of the United States in support of Zionism, Israel or the specific policies of its government...
positions, notably within the Council of Foreign Relations. The authors argued that Boot and other figures dishonestly warp American foreign policy away from its national interest
National interest
The national interest, often referred to by the French expression raison d'État , is a country's goals and ambitions whether economic, military, or cultural. The concept is an important one in international relations where pursuit of the national interest is the foundation of the realist...
. Boot has called their ideas "crazy". He has also remarked that American activists could not keep President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
from pressuring Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Israel
The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of the Israeli government and the most powerful political figure in Israel . The prime minister is the country's chief executive. The official residence of the prime minister, Beit Rosh Hamemshala is in Jerusalem...
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak
Ehud Barak is an Israeli politician who served as Prime Minister from 1999 until 2001. He was leader of the Labor Party until January 2011 and holds the posts of Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister in Binyamin Netanyahu's government....
during the Camp David summit, which he believes belies the idea of a powerful Israeli lobby.
In response to the 2011 Libyan uprising, Boot wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the United States should send an aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
with "34 F/A-18F Super Hornets and 10 F/A-18C Hornets along with a full complement of electronic-warfare
Electronic warfare
Electronic warfare refers to any action involving the use of the electromagnetic spectrum or directed energy to control the spectrum, attack an enemy, or impede enemy assaults via the spectrum. The purpose of electronic warfare is to deny the opponent the advantage of, and ensure friendly...
aircraft" to Libya
Libya
Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
in order to establish a no-fly zone
No-fly zone
A no-fly zone is a territory or an area over which aircraft are not permitted to fly. Such zones are usually set up in a military context, somewhat like a demilitarized zone in the sky, and usually prohibit military aircraft of a belligerent nation from operating in the region.-Iraq,...
over that country. In addition, he argued that "It may also be necessary to send arms and Special Forces trainers to support the rebels," and that inaction would "reduce American power and prestige in ways that will do us incalculable long-term harm." Replying to Boot's arguments, Will Wilkinson
Will Wilkinson
Will Wilkinson is a Canadian American libertarian writer. Until August 2010, he was a research fellow at the Cato Institute where he worked on a variety of issues including Social Security reform and, most notably, the policy implications of happiness research. He is currently working on a paper...
of The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
wrote that "there is no question that serious people do not deliberate like this" and that "crediting this sort of keyboard brinkmanship has already done Americans (and Iraqis and Afghans) incalculable harm."
External links
- Hickman, John. "What Luck!" On Line Opinion: Australia's E-Journal of Social and Political Debate. June 1, 2007.
- Boot, Max. "Neocons May Get the Last Laugh". Los Angeles TimesLos Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
. March 3, 2005. - Max Boot discusses War Made New at the World Affairs Council of Northern California, November 11, 2006 (video)
- Interview on War Made New at the Pritzker Military LibraryPritzker Military LibraryThe Pritzker Military Library is a research library for the study of military history in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded in 2003 by COL James N. Pritzker, IL ARNG to be a non-partisan institution for the study of "the citizen soldier as an essential element for the preservation of...
- An excerpt from Out of Order at The Denver PostThe Denver Post-Ownership:The Post is the flagship newspaper of MediaNews Group Inc., founded in 1983 by William Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder. MediaNews is today one of the nation's largest newspaper chains, publisher of 61 daily newspapers and more than 120 non-daily publications in 13 states. MediaNews...