Book looks at post-Cold War stage

AMERICA BETWEEN THE WARS, 11/9 to 9/11: The Misunderstood Years Between the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Start of the War on Terror. By Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier. PublicAffairs. 432 pages. $27.95.

"When our national security interests are threatened," the president said, "we will act with others when we can, but alone if we must. We will use diplomacy when we can, but force if we must."

If you're unsure which U.S. president postulated this formula for his administration's approaches to U.S. foreign policymaking, you might want to read "America Between the Wars," a wonderfully illuminating and timely expose of all you may have forgotten about the policy prescriptions, both foreign and domestic, espoused by leading Democrats and Republicans during the unnamed, uncertain, albeit politically awkward years from "11/9 to 9/11" — the years between the Cold War's conclusion and the horrific events that sparked the American-led War on Terror.

The quote is drawn from remarks made before the United Nations General Assembly by President William Jefferson Clinton in the fall of 1994.

It's an eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping, albeit entertaining review of the political climate and policy dynamics of an era in which politicians and statesmen clumsily joggled to define the nature of America's role in an unprecedented global paradigm, one unlike any of our leaders, so it would seem, ever truly anticipated.

"America Between the Wars" offers a reader-friendly examination of the policy prescriptions and themes surrounding America's first steps onto the new post-Cold War global stage. It also includes each political group's views — Democrats', Republicans' and neoconservatives' — of the others' plans for positioning America in a truly brave new world where Old Glory became the banner of the globe's first true prospective "hegemon," and terms like "intermestic" were unavoidably at the fore of our policymakers' collective consciousness.

For avid readers of nonfiction materials, the authors' presentations of each major political group's positions and counterpositions in a manner that conjures thoughts of such cliches as "fair and balanced" translates to a refreshing look at this history. By shedding light on the perspectives of representatives of each of those groups, Chollet and Goldgeier manage to present their account of the period from which the very political polarizations confronting America today emerged without needing to employ the slightest tonal criticisms to maintain the reader's interest in their script.

Whether you're a journalist searching for a catalog of forgotten quotes, a student of politics, a fellow at a think tank, a political candidate yourself or simply a concerned citizen who is curious about the extents to which inconsistencies of political messages might represent the basis for the United States' position in the world today, "America Between the Wars" is a work you should have on your desk this summer.