Edward N. Luttwak, The Endangered American Dream (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993) 365 pages, $24.
With the USSR acronym already fading out of memory, governments are turning to the dangerous, dirty, and unglamorous task of pulling apart their nukes and reprocessing the components. But that is not the only adjustment that marks the passage of the Soviet empire. Geo-politicians, having for so long occupied center stage among the foreign affairs elite, find their audiences dissipated, their status challenged.
But all is not yet lost. Nation states are still the principal players in the international game and show no signs of relinquishing that role. And geo-politicians can count on one basic verity as they face the future: In the words of Mr. Luttwak, "states are relentlessly adversarial." So we can expect the continuation of warfare, even if it takes the form of economic rivalry. In such a world, the state that wishes to emerge triumphant needs the services of the geo-economist. And where best to find the well-prepared geo-economist than from the ranks of the underemployed geo-politicians?
One thing is certain: National economic security is the growth subject of the Washington think tanks. The Soviet Union is no more, revealed in the end as a paper tiger; but Asia is fast developing new menaces, whose armaments take an economic form. The status of national economic security as the subject of the moment is now confirmed from many directions, including the reports of congressional committees and the addresses of leaders in the executive branch.
