Philip Bobbitt's Terror and Consent reviewed by Niall Ferguson

I will be reviewing Philip Bobbitt’s Terror and Consent for a major book review in a couple of weeks, so I will refrain from saying anything about this book now. However, I strongly recommend reading Niall Ferguson’s review of it in today’s New York Times Book Review (Sunday, April 13, 2008). Strongly recommend. Ferguson says:

This is quite simply the most profound book to have been written on the subject of American foreign policy since the attacks of 9/11 — indeed, since the end of the cold war. I have no doubt it will be garlanded with prizes. It deserves to be. It is more important that it should be read, marked and inwardly digested by all three of the remaining candidates to succeed George W. Bush as president of the United States.

Bobbitt’s originality lies in his almost unique ability to synthesize three quite different traditions of scholarship. The first is history. The second is law, particularly constitutional law. The third is military strategy. This synthesis owes as much to the corridors of power as to the sequestered groves of academe. Bobbitt was an associate counsel to President Carter, legal counsel to the Senate’s Iran-Contra committee and a senior director on the National Security Council under President Clinton.