"A treaty would also serve as a long term foundation for US-Israel relations and ensure Israel's standing in the US in the future, at a time when the pro-Israel community may be less influential and the administration and Congress less friendly than they are at present."

"...China's economic stake in the American economy needs to be as strong and balanced as the American stake in China. Recent studies indicate that conflict between two countries declines in proportion to the large and symmetrical foreign direct-investment stake they hold in each other. Part of the strong reciprocity in U.S.-Canada relations is due to the foreign direct investment going both ways. When such investments take place reciprocally, they lower the level of conflict between governments...."

Francis Fukuyama’s important new book on nation building asks all the right questions, but it does not provide answers to them. He rightly sees that the major problem in modern international politics is not primarily when to use force, it is what to do after an invader has already succeeded and is in occupation of the disputed territory. One can win the war, and, as the United States is doing presently in Iraq, lose the peace. After the fact, this can strongly condition whether it was a right decision to go in, in the first place.

The author applauds Llyod Gruber for offering new insights into why states join international and supranational institutions even when balance-of-power considerations would suggest they do otherwise.