George W. Bush’s election and the fear and confusion of September 11 combined to allow a small group of radical intellectuals to seize the reins of US national security policy. Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke show how, at this ‘inflection point’ in US history, an inexperienced president was persuaded to abandon his campaign pledges and the successful consensus-driven, bipartisan diplomacy that managed the lethal Soviet threat over the past half century, and adopt a neo-conservative foreign policy emphasizing military confrontation and ‘nation-building’. To date, the costs - in blood, money and credibility - have been great, and the benefits few. Traditional conservatives deplore this approach. America Alone outlines the costs in terms of economic damage, distortion of priorities, rising anti-Americanism, encroachment on civil liberties, domestic political polarization and reduced security. Then, it sets out an alternative approach emphasizing the traditional conservative principles of containing risk, consensus diplomacy and balance of power.