World in Crisis is a collection of articles written between 2004 and 2008 on a variety of interconnected subjects relating to global security and the present economic crisis. While the overall tone is every bit as alarmist as the book’s title and its cover with its disconcerting image of a planet (Earth) apparently engulfed in an inferno, the writing is every bit as soberly perspicacious as we would expect from a scholar of the calibre of Gabriel Kolko.
Going against the considerable body of liberal left opinion that tends to perceive the presidency of George W Bush and the present economic malaise as an exceptional crisis of uncertainty, Kolko seeks at all times to locate the developments of the past few years within a broader historical framework.
On US foreign policy, for instance, he reminds us that the Bush administration’s wars of aggression had their ideological roots in a “truly bipartisan consensus” between Republicans and Democrats, spanning several decades.
An insightful piece on the role of intelligence in formulating foreign policy draws from the experience of the Vietnam War to examine how governments bent on war will manipulate the truth in order to obtain the “intelligence” that best supports the case to intervene.
Kolko portrays the political and military machinery in the United States as heavy with a heady mixture of malevolence, incompetence and personal ambition as well as the corporate interests of arms manufacturers and says it assumes its own expansionary dynamic; despite ultimate power being so disparately located, the destructive power of the US military machine is immense, as demonstrated by the devastation wrought on Baghdad.
Kolko’s overarching theme, however, is that US hegemony is in serious and irreversible decline, in spite of its military might. While “American capitalism is tending towards committing suicide” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated that, as with Vietnam, military strength alone cannot prevail in the face of overwhelming political resistance. Likewise the recent war in Lebanon showed that Israel’s sophisticated weaponry can “kill people but it cannot attain final victory”.
The US tendency to try to find military solutions to what are essentially socio-economic and political problems is apparent everywhere from its Middle East policy to its sponsorship of a militarised peace in Colombia. It is a recipe for permanent war and a boon to an arms industry that exercises considerable influence in the corridors of power in Washington.
Two decades of unstable diplomacy in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union have precipitated what Kolko describes as “the most dangerous period in mankind’s entire history” and the issue of nuclear proliferation is surely as important today as it ever has been.
There are some minor quibbles. Perhaps inevitably in a collection of this sort there is a certain amount of repetition with respect to certain key points of Kolko’s analysis. More significantly, any hint of resistance to this spiralling uncertainty is almost completely absent – indeed it is not until the very last page of the book that Kolko makes any mention of resistance: “There will certainly be an opposition because conditions…still warrant it.”
This small book is, nonetheless, a worthwhile and extremely accessible read, providing as it does a useful interpretive framework for understanding the present world situation. l
Nathaniel Mehr
World in Crisis: The End of the American Century by Gabriel Kolko
Pluto, £12.99
World in Crisis is a collection of articles written between 2004 and 2008 on a variety of interconnected subjects relating to global security and the present economic crisis. While the overall tone is every bit as alarmist as the book’s title and its cover with its disconcerting image of a planet (Earth) apparently engulfed in an inferno, the writing is every bit as soberly perspicacious as we would expect from a scholar of the calibre of Gabriel Kolko.
Going against the considerable body of liberal left opinion that tends to perceive the presidency of George W Bush and the present economic malaise as an exceptional crisis of uncertainty, Kolko seeks at all times to locate the developments of the past few years within a broader historical framework.
On US foreign policy, for instance, he reminds us that the Bush administration’s wars of aggression had their ideological roots in a “truly bipartisan consensus” between Republicans and Democrats, spanning several decades.
An insightful piece on the role of intelligence in formulating foreign policy draws from the experience of the Vietnam War to examine how governments bent on war will manipulate the truth in order to obtain the “intelligence” that best supports the case to intervene.
Kolko portrays the political and military machinery in the United States as heavy with a heady mixture of malevolence, incompetence and personal ambition as well as the corporate interests of arms manufacturers and says it assumes its own expansionary dynamic; despite ultimate power being so disparately located, the destructive power of the US military machine is immense, as demonstrated by the devastation wrought on Baghdad.
Kolko’s overarching theme, however, is that US hegemony is in serious and irreversible decline, in spite of its military might. While “American capitalism is tending towards committing suicide” the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have demonstrated that, as with Vietnam, military strength alone cannot prevail in the face of overwhelming political resistance. Likewise the recent war in Lebanon showed that Israel’s sophisticated weaponry can “kill people but it cannot attain final victory”.
The US tendency to try to find military solutions to what are essentially socio-economic and political problems is apparent everywhere from its Middle East policy to its sponsorship of a militarised peace in Colombia. It is a recipe for permanent war and a boon to an arms industry that exercises considerable influence in the corridors of power in Washington.
Two decades of unstable diplomacy in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union have precipitated what Kolko describes as “the most dangerous period in mankind’s entire history” and the issue of nuclear proliferation is surely as important today as it ever has been.
There are some minor quibbles. Perhaps inevitably in a collection of this sort there is a certain amount of repetition with respect to certain key points of Kolko’s analysis. More significantly, any hint of resistance to this spiralling uncertainty is almost completely absent – indeed it is not until the very last page of the book that Kolko makes any mention of resistance: “There will certainly be an opposition because conditions…still warrant it.”
This small book is, nonetheless, a worthwhile and extremely accessible read, providing as it does a useful interpretive framework for understanding the present world situation. l
Nathaniel Mehr
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