The United States is the mightiest nation in history. Yet for six decades one of the world's weakest states has challenged the superpower and kept it at bay. Today, that country also threatens to change the course of human events with an act of unimaginable devastation.

Nuclear Showdown analyzes the failed society that has become the gravest threat to America and international order: North Korea. Showdown puts that country into the context of the future of the United States, the global spread of nuclear weapons, and the crises threatening to turn Asia into the world's next battleground where millions could die in hours. No other book looks at the North Korean conundrum from such a broad perspective.

How can Washington stop puny North Korea from taking down the American-led international system? No one seems to have an answer. For more than half a century, policymakers have failed when it comes to taming the Kims, father and son.

Showdown proposes a solution that can defuse the standoff once and for all. America won't have much of a future atop the world order unless it can put an end to the North Korean threat, and global powers don't last long when other nations see that they can be bedeviled and humbled. Now is the time when the world writes its history for the next hundred years.