via NPR: On A Budget, U.S. Faces World As 'Frugal Superpower'

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Michael Mandelbaum is the Director of the American Foreign Policy Program at Johns Hopkins University.

Anne Mandelbaum

Michael Mandelbaum is the Director of the American Foreign Policy Program at Johns Hopkins University.

The Frugal Superpower: America's Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era
By Michael Mandelbaum
Hardcover, 224 pages
PublicAffairs
List price: $23.95

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August 22, 2010

Back in December, when President Obama announced he was sending additional troops to Afghanistan, he said something we don't hear very often from the White House.

"We can't simply afford to ignore the price of these wars," Obama said, referring to the actual financial cost of America's engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy professor at Johns Hopkins University, tells NPR's Audie Cornish that's a rare admission for an American president. And it could signal a new phase of foreign policy for the U.S.