Endangered American Dream

Luttwak's book of early 90's operates within the Hobbesian intuition that a certain type of warfare among divers"us" and "them" is an essential component of history. Far from Fukuyama's picture of ending history, Luttwak suggests that the head wagons of the train of history are going to enter a new space called "geo-economics". In order the United States to avoid "third-worldization", Luttwak suggests, she must mobilize a geo-economic warfare to be waged on a systematic basis. This seemingly counter-Wilsonian suggestion, in fact, is designed as a dialectical counter-balance for possible hot and cold wars among rival subjects of the global market. Instrumental for the geo-economics is a state-supported research, product development and market penetration - the main equivalents of standard warfare means: fire powder, weapon innovation and military bases on foreign soil. Luttwak's observations and descriptions of various cases of already operating geo-economical ambush tactics and plain "war zones" in the global market are fascinating. The story of the possible third-worldization of the United State is chilling. It seems,post 9/11 warfare developments only supplement Luttwak's intuition and point to the need for functional analysis of levels and forms of warfare. The perspective through which the book engages into the essentials of the post Cold War United States' pragmatics is revealing.

Edward N. Luttwak's text does not fit into any traditional political or economic molds. On the one hand he calls for pragmatic, standardized education which will train folks for the rigors of the modern education. He critiques a multicultural agenda which holds that teaching tolerance of other cultures is more important than raising children to be tomorrow's economic leaders. On the other hand, he calls for a value added tax similar to what exists in Europe to encourage savings rather than excessive consumption. Luttwak's proposals, from tightening security along the US Mexico border to reforming the legal system to curb excessive and frivolous lawsuits, are all viable. The book's only shortcoming is that it comes across as aggressive to the point of being hostile. I certainly agree with much of what he has to say, but I fail to understand why he chooses to employ rhetoric of warfare and belligerence in describing the country's economic situation and the solution. I would much rather see a call for fairness and compassion in economic decisions rather than the belligerance of Luttwak. Still, his book is readable and offers solutions that are highly viable nine years after its publication.

This lucid and readable book focuses largely on the reasons (sociopolitical as well as economic) for Japan's phenomenal ascent from a resource-poor, war-ravaged island nation to its premier status today, in contrast to the accelerating decline of the U.S. This is no reactionary us-versus-them rant, as Kirkus might lead you to believe, but an objective analysis of different societies' behavior and priorities, and why we cannot continue to delude ourselves with past glories. The points Luttwak makes are even more relevant now, six years later, as much of the globe falls in thrall of the supranational corporate oligarchy.