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'U.S. Versus Them': The Costs Of Hawkishness

American conservatives like to say they take a back seat to no one when it comes to national security. But J. Peter Scoblic says the conservatism of the past 50 years has actually undermined American security.

In the new book U.S. Versus Them: How a Half-Century of Conservatism Has Undermined America's Security, Scoblic argues that by promoting an aggressive foreign policy drafted in absolute moral terms, the conservative movement has actually made the United States more vulnerable to attack.

Scoblic is the executive editor of The New Republic and previously served as editor of Arms Control Today. He wrote his new book while a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a visiting researcher at Georgetown University's Center for Peace and Security Studies.

He has written about security issues for The New York Times and The Washington Post.

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