Superpower by Ian Bremmer
I’ve just finished reading Superpower, a book by Ian Bremmer which examines three possible scenarios for American defense and foreign policy for the next President. They are Indispensable America, Moneyball America and Independent America. He says he wrote this book as an exercise for himself to consider which of these three plans had the most appeal. Indispensable America is the most costly which closely parallels our current approach and postulates that as the world’s only superpower, we need to continue our present policies and perhaps even enlarge upon what we’re currently doing.
Moneyball America says we should consider our strategic interests and fund those alliances that only advance our strategic interests. Finally, Independent America is somewhat akin to Moneyball, only it acknowledges that we cannot be all things to all people and that by constructing a more caring and equitable society here at home, we can lead by example and reduce our defense expenditures and use the savings to fund education and medical care and other social needs. He also says that it is time for Japan and Korea and Germany and France and other developed nations of Europe to pay more of their own defense expenditures. He says further that too much allegiance or opposition is paid to the prevailing views of the political party in power, so very little critical thinking is applied to what we should really do as we go forward.
I think it’s a book that is long overdue and, as an examination of our defense and foreign policy, it is very worthwhile to consider. My view is that our outsized defense budgets do no one any good and that we definitely need to carefully think through what we can and cannot do.
Jim Anderson