For years, anthropology has brought the lives and beliefs of "exotic" peoples to audiences in the West. "Diagnosing America: Anthropology and Public Engagement" reveals the power of anthropological description and analysis when applied to social, economic, and political problems in the contemporary United States and demonstrates the urgent need for this work.
Debunking the notion of anthropology as a "value-free" science, the authors argue forcefully for an anthropology expressly committed to cultural pluralism and democratic participation.
At the same time, individual essays demonstrate the applicability of standard anthropological methods to the study of contemporary U.S. society and culture as they investigate contested values, community politics, middle-class economics, and workplace culture or describe the psychophysiological stress effects of exclusion on African- Americans and the coping mechanisms of Mexican-Americans along the border.
"Diagnosing America" and the challenging "Statement to the Profession" that concludes it call for anthropologists to reach beyond the parochialism of their own discipline and to engage history, economics, sociology, and the policy sciences. It will be of interest to scholars in each of these fields who are concerned with the study and resolution of contemporary social problems in the United States and to students of American culture in this country and abroad.
Shepard Forman is Director of the International Affairs Program of the Ford Foundation and a former Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

Cooperating for Peace and Security is a comprehensive survey of multilateral security cooperation since 1989. With essays by leading experts on topics from peacekeeping to nuclear security, it goes beyond theoretical discussions of the value of cooperation to show how the operational activities of international organizations meet the security needs of states. In particular, it explores the complex relationship between multilateralism and American security concerns. Covering the UN, NATO, and regional organizations, the authors show that U.S. interests have often shaped institutions. But, more strikingly, other states have also driven institutional change without U.S. support or even in the face of American opposition. This raises important questions about how the balance of power shapes international institutions. In a period of shifting power dynamics, the empirical evidence on security cooperation gathered in this volume is a unique resource for scholars and policy-makers concerned with the future of international institutions.

Cooperating for Peace and Security is a comprehensive survey of multilateral security cooperation since 1989. With essays by leading experts on topics from peacekeeping to nuclear security, it goes beyond theoretical discussions of the value of cooperation to show how the operational activities of international organizations meet the security needs of states. In particular, it explores the complex relationship between multilateralism and American security concerns. Covering the UN, NATO, and regional organizations, the authors show that U.S. interests have often shaped institutions. But, more strikingly, other states have also driven institutional change without U.S. support or even in the face of American opposition. This raises important questions about how the balance of power shapes international institutions. In a period of shifting power dynamics, the empirical evidence on security cooperation gathered in this volume is a unique resource for scholars and policy-makers concerned with the future of international institutions.