"The ghost of Woodrow Wilson, whose presidency encompassed the First World War and its immediate aftermath, has haunted world leaders from his day to ours. Wilson's vision - of a collective international action to resist aggressive conflict after the carnage of the First World War - failed tragically. As a consequence, over 160 million people died in conflict during the 20th century, making it the bloodiest by far in all of human history. Will the 21st century take humanity along the same violent path?".

"In Wilson's Ghost, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara and Brown University Professor James G. Blight hold up the Wilsonian tragedy as a historical mirror in order to illuminate our own security risks, and as a stimulus to finding ways to lower those risks.

In a provocative synthesis of the pragmatic, historical, and philosophical arguments for avoiding war and achieving a sustainable peace, McNamara and Blight put forth a multi-faceted action program for realizing Wilson's dream in our new century. The plan begins with a moral imperative that establishes the reduction of human carnage as a major goal of foreign policy across the globe, and details the necessity of adopting new policies to support that goal."--BOOK JACKET.