Bound to Lead

A pre-eminent scholar challenges the notion of inevitable American decline, arguing that the nation can still lead in a rapidly shifting world order

“Nye marshals his wide grasp of history, politics, and economics to produce a compelling book.” —The Economist

In this pioneering work, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., reckons with the enduring claim that American decline is inevitable. He argues that the United States will remain the dominant world power and shows that narratives about decline only divert policy makers from creating effective strategies for the future. The United States is not losing power; the nature of power has simply changed. The real—and unprecedented—challenge for the United States is maintaining its position as the world becomes increasingly interdependent.

• “A potent tonic.” 
  The Wall Street Journal
• “Mr. Nye marshals his wide grasp of history, politics, and economics to produce a compelling book.” 
  The Economist
• “Judicious, reasonable, and thoughtful.” 
  New York Review of Books
• “Joseph S. Nye Jr.’s corrective, Bound to Lead, is welcome. [Nye] differs with Paul Kennedy’s contention in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers that the United States shows the symptoms of imperial exhaustion, like Philip II’s Spain and Nicholas II’s Russia.” 
  The New York Times
• “Now, at last, the anti-declinists are firing back, and the best volley comes from Nye . . . the first to marshal the anti-decline arguments into a scholarly work and present and alternate vision of the country’s future. . . . This book may help lift today’s gloom.” 
  David R. Gergen, U.S. News & World Report
• “A timely and forceful response to the doomsayers who have proclaimed the inevitability of America’s alleged decline.” 
  Zbigniew Brzezinski, New York Times bestselling author of Second Chance
• “Joe Nye refuses to join the doomsayers.” 
  Paul Volcker, author of Keeping at It
• “From now on, nobody will be able to debate the question of American ‘decline’ except in the framework this book defines. It is solidly grounded, clear-headed, and powerfully argued—an extraordinary book.” 
  Ernest R. May, author of The Kennedy Tapes
• “A refreshing break with the doom and gloom of the prophets of the inevitability of decline.” 
  François Heisbourg, Senior Advisor for Europe, International Institute for Strategic Studies