Review: US Defense Politics The Origins of Security Policy, Arsenal of Democracy The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism, Clausewitz and America Strategic Thought and Practice from Vietnam to Iraq, National Security and Core Values in American History
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070201006500319 |
| Subject Matter | Coming AttractionsReview |
| 788 | Summer 2010 | International Journal |
| Reviews |
US DEFENSE POLITICS
The Origins of Security Policy
Harvey M. Sapolsky, Eugene Gholz, and Caitlin Talmadge
New York: Routledge, 2009. 208pp, $45.95 paper
ISBN 978-0-415-77266-2
ARSENAL OF DEMOCRACY
The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism
Julian E. Zelizer
New York: Basic Books, 2010. 592pp, $44.50 cloth
ISBN 978-0-465-01507-8
CLAUSEWITZ AND AMERICA
Strategic Thought and Practice from Vietnam to Iraq
Stuart Kinross
New York: Routledge, 2008. 256pp, $45.95 paper
ISBN 978-0-415-56963-7
NATIONAL SECURITY AND CORE VALUES IN AMERICAN HISTORY
William O. Walker III
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 366pp, $28.95 paper
ISBN 978-0-521-74010-4
For nearly a decade, the United States has been engaged in a multi-front
“global war on terror,” or GWOT in common American defence parlance.
While the military aspect of this campaign has been awe-inspiring—the
March 2003 invasion of Iraq was arguably the most successful and cohesive
joint warfare exercise in human history—Washington’s long-term strategic
goals have increasingly come under question. With progress in Iraq and
Afghanistan moving at a frustratingly slow pace, commentators are now
replacing the acronym “GWOT” with a more cynical but perhaps more apt
phrase: the “long war.” The term suggests that Washington still has far to
go in the pursuit of its original political-strategic goals. Not surprisingly,
accompanying this semantic shift is a growing concern in public circles that
Washington’s current strategic doctrine has become dangerously ineffective.
Four recent books provide a broad and useful picture of the origins and
current state of American strategic thinking. These titles run the gamut
from an introductory textbook (Sapolsky, Gholz, and Talmadge) to a complex
and first-class monograph (Kinross), although each offers its own unique
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