Preventive Defense: a New Security Strategy for America - Softcover

Ashton B. Carter; William J. Perry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081571307X ISBN 13: 9780815713074

Publisher: Brookings Institution,U.S., 2000

Synopsis

William J. Perry and Ashton B. Carter, two of the world's foremost defense authorities, draw on their experience as leaders of the U.S. Defense Department to propose a new American security strategy for the twenty-first century. After a century in which aggression had to be defeated in two world wars and then deterred through a prolonged cold war, the authors argue for a strategy centered on prevention. Now that the cold war is over, it is necessary to rethink the risks to U.S. security. The A list--threats to U.S. survival--is empty today. The B list--the two major regional contingencies in the Persian Gulf and on the Korean peninsula that dominate Pentagon planning and budgeting--pose imminent threats to U.S. interests but not to survival. And the C list--such headline-grabbing places as Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda, and Haiti--includes important contingencies that indirectly affect U.S. security but do not directly threaten U.S. interests. Thus the United States is enjoying a period of unprecedented peace and influence; but foreign policy and defense leaders cannot afford to be complacent. The authors' preventive defense strategy concentrates on the dangers that, if mismanaged, have the potential to grow into true A-list threats to U.S. survival in the next century. These include Weimar Russia: failure to establish a self-respecting place for the new Russia in the post-cold war world, allowing it to descend into chaos, isolation, and aggression as Germany did after World War I; Loose Nukes: failure to reduce and secure the deadly legacy of the cold war--nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons in Russia and the rest of the former Soviet Union; A Rising China Turned Hostile: failure to shape China's rise to Asian superpower status so that it emerges as a partner rather than an adversary; Proliferation: spread of weapons of mass destruction; and Catastrophic Terrorism: increase in the scope and intensity of transnational terrorism.They also argue for better man

About this title

Review:

"An informative mixture of anecdote, analysis, and advocacy." -- "Times Literary Supplement"

"Perry and Carter outline an important new preventive defense stratgey to identify post-cold war dangers that might become cold war-scale threats and to apply U.S. tools and tactics to avert them..." --Sam Nunn, Former U.S. Senator

"What should the American strategy be for the 21st century? Carter and Perry rightly answer their own question by emphasizing the need to mobilize every resource-political, economic, and military-to head off the dangers of proliferation, terrorism, and loose nukes...Preventive Defense gives us both the wake-up call and the elements of a new strategy." --The Right Hon. Michael Portillo, Former Minister of Defense, U.K.

"This book's prescription for the post-cold war defense strategy of the United States weaves together fresh analysis with the authors' considerable experience to delineate their concept of 'preventive defense.'... Provocative, interesting, instructive, and insightful and sound." --James Schlesinger, Former U.S. Secretary of Defense, Former Director of the CIA

"An essential guide to the critical choices that must be made as America rethinks potential threats to national security. " --Gen. Brent Scowcroft, Former U.S. National Security Adviser

"America has had difficulty discerning where to look for the next big threat as opposed to the momentary flash point. That is a problem addressed... in a thoughtful new book, Preventive Defense.... [The authors'] emphasis is on broadening the definition of defense beyond military strategy to make prevention the most effective form of deterrence." -- "Christian Science Monitor"

"The authors of this book have taken their experiences as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy and Secretary of Defense in the Clinton Administration and decanted them nicely into a unique vision...." --Gordon Adams, "Survival"

"Preventive Defense lives up to [its] praise and provides a concise prescription for US security plicy in the late 1990s and beyond." -- "Georgetown Public Policy Review"

"The most important book by any ex-Clinton official." -- "The New York Times"

"eerily prophetic" --Felix Soh, "The Strait Times (Singapore)", 7/5/2002

From the Publisher:

Reviews of PREVENTIVE DEFENSE
"The most important book by any ex-Clinton official." Thomas L. Friedman in The New York Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Brookings Institution,U.S.
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 081571307X
• ISBN 13: 9780815713074
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248