With “The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency”, political scientist and Cato Scholar John Mueller has accomplished a remarkable feat. It has the potential to infuriate the entire political spectrum. With often tedious accuracy, he examines U.S. foreign policy since 1945, and makes a powerful case that the expense, futility and, too often, our fascination with force of arms are obsolete.
Carefully examining Korea to Afghanistan, he points out how we have inflated the competence, numbers and ambitions of ideological adversaries. For example, there is little evidence China seeks to become a political hegemon when it can gain global status and domestic prosperity with effective economic decisions (the billions not spent on arms has built 36,000 miles of 200 mph railroads).
Mueller’s use of the term stupidity might be warranted. He even suggests “complacency” and (gasp!) “appeasement” are viable tactics.
While Mueller glosses over the intensifying cyberwar, he says out loud what many are reluctantly contemplating.
