The Political Economy Of National Security: A Global Perspective; Beyond Guns And Butter: Recapturing America’s Economic Momentum After A Military Decade

Kapstein's introduction to defense and the economy is spare and sophisticated, fruitfully "global" in two senses: its comparisons with other industrial countries help us understand American practice; it recognizes that defense does not function within a closed national economy, but rather is "an integral part of the world economy." Pascall and Lamson, both rich in private-sector experience and one a former director of Business Executives for National Security, readably frame the presence of defense in the national economy, enlivened by examples like the FSX controversy. Their own bipartisan consensus opposes trying to run an industrial policy from the Pentagon. Instead they return to basic reforms, like revamping procurement, that seemed in the "too hard" box two years ago but may not be now.