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Sovereign Acts: American Unilateralism And Global Security

John Tirman
Reviewed by By William G. Hyland
Winter 1989/90
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John Tirman
Ballinger
1989
256 pp.
$24.95

It is hard to know what to make of this book. It is an argument for restraint, not action, so its title misleads-in its use of the word "unilateralism" particularly. Those whom Tirman, a former editor for Time and also the Union of Concerned Scientists, calls "the technicians" will think he treads familiar ground without quite realizing it-for instance in discussing the difficulties of arms control or nonproliferation policy. Others will be put off by the faintly Marxist analysis of American intervention even if they acknowledge that the analysis is not entirely wrong. Tirman's urging an "organic" view of security, one that sees the connectedness of things, is interesting, but his specific guidance is modest.

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