The Power Problem

On July 24, Christopher Preble discussed his new book The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance
Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free. Dr. Preble was joined by New America’s
Michael Cohen, Senior Research Fellow and co-director of the Privatization
of Foreign Policy Initiative, and Michael
Lind, Senior Fellow and Policy Director of the Economic Growth Program, as well
as Gordon Adams, a Distinguished Fellow
at the Stimson Center, in discussing whether and how the U.S. should scale back
its global military commitments.

Both Democratic and
Republican policymakers, Preble claimed, assume that the U.S. military must be
the linchpin of global stability.  But
that exceeds our economic means, so America should begin to focus on a more modest
military strategy focused on core national security interests, and pare back
our military spending, before a fiscal crisis forces us to make abrupt
adjustments for which we aren’t prepared. That will require getting other
countries to shoulder greater responsibility for maintaining order in their
regions.

Adams largely agreed
with Preble, but said that scaling back the military is not enough. Given the
highly interdependent global order, the U.S. should deploy civilian experts
around the world in multilateral operations to promote stability in
post-conflict and failing states. Iraq and Afghanistan should not drive our
thinking: we shouldn’t be putting more civilians in combat zones. Cohen also
expressed concern that the lesson Americans drew from the Iraq war was not how
to avoid such wars but how to fight them more effectively.

Lind agreed that
America’s military preponderance is not necessary to deal with terrorists or
rogue states, and argued that it is actually designed to intimidate rival
powers who would consider challenging U.S. hegemony, and, by providing security
for allies such as Germany and Japan, to persuade them not to build up their
militaries. But we can’t sustain spending 4-5% of GDP on military, and in the
coming fiscal crisis, he predicts entitlement programs will win out over
military expenditures. He called for a concert of global powers to address
global problems together. At the same time, Lind said, we need to be prepared
to fight in all types of conflict. If the U.S. announces it will not mount
small-scale pacification operations, our enemies will challenge us through
guerilla warfare.

Participants

Gordon Adams
Distinguished Fellow, Stimson Center
Professor, US Foreign Policy, American University

Michael Lind
Policy Director, Economic Growth Program
New America Foundation

Christopher A. Preble
Author, The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free

Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute

moderator
Michael A. Cohen
Co-director, Privatization of Foreign Policy Initiative

New America Foundation