Home › Features › Essays › Superpower Without a Sword

Superpower Without a Sword

By Alan Tonelson
Summer 1993
Article Summary and Author Biography

America's leaders still cling to a superpower role. President Clinton himself has paid at least rhetorical support to spearheading a democratic world order. But his administration's proposed defense budget would strip the nation of the power needed to carry out those ambitions. A mismatch of financial means and political ends looms on the nation's horizon. The way to close the gap is not to build up defense, but to build down U.S. foreign policy goals.

We're sorry, but Foreign Affairs does not have the copyright to display this article online.

Related

Essay, Jul/Aug 1996
Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy
William Kristol and Robert Kagan

America has reached a tepid consensus that accepts a decline of U.S. power in the world as inevitable. Other nations, better judges of power, treat the United States as a hegemon. America should pursue a vision of benevolent hegemony as bold as Reagan's in the 1970s and wield its authority unabashedly. The defense budget should be increased dramatically, citizens should be educated to appreciate the military's vital work abroad, and moral clarity should direct a foreign policy that puts the heat on dictators and authoritarian regimes. Republicans are best fitted to carry out this foreign policy of national honor and elevated patriotism.

Read
Essay, Jul/Aug 1996
A Post-Heroic Military Policy: The New Season of Bellicosity
Edward N. Luttwak

The Cold War induced caution in nations that feared uncontrollable escalation. Now that confrontations are less likely to careen out of control, a new season of bellicosity is here. The U.S. military, trapped in a Cold War mindset, has failed to realize this. It is spending far too much on casualty-prone units in all the services, in an age when political opposition to casualties effectively makes these units unavailable for combat. The military should recalibrate its priorities and shift funds to weapons such as high-tech lasers, stealth aircraft, and cruise missiles that can make warfare less lethal for Americans.

Read
Essay, Nov/Dec 1995
Our Overstuffed Armed Forces: Reasons to Cut More
Lawrence J. Korb

President Clinton and the Republican Congress do not agree on much, but both want to give the Pentagon more than it dared hope for in the post--Cold War era: some $260 billion a year. The Joint Chiefs say the United States should be ready to fight two wars at once, but would this really take as many troops as they claim, and is it even reasonable to plan for it? Look around at what allies and enemies are spending. Election time, however, is almost here, and politics in the defense debate has seldom run higher. What makes no strategic sense is good on the hustings.

Read