A story of wasted opportunity and squandered prestige: a critique of the last three U.S. presidents' foreign policy. Distinguished commentator on foreign policy, former National Security Adviser Brzezinski, offers a reasoned but unsparing assessment of the last three presidential administrations' foreign policy. Though spanning less than two decades, these administrations cover a vitally important turning point in world history: the period in which the United States, having emerged from the Cold War withunprecedented power and prestige, managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. This is a tale of decline: from the competent but conventional thinking of the first Bush administration, to the well-intentioned self-indulgence of the Clinton administration, to the mortgaging of America's future by the "suicidal statecraft" of the second Bush administration. Brzezinski concludes with a chapter on how America can regain its lost prestige. This scholarly yet highly opinionated book is sure to be both controversial and influential.--From publisher description.Examines how George Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush performed as history's first successive global leaders following the United States' victory over the Cold War, and how that performance was influenced by their leadership styles.