A Review of Campbell and O'Hanlon's "Hard Power"

By Jeffrey Breinholt

Today in Family Security Matters, I have a review of the excellent book Hard Power: The New Politics of National Security (Basic Books 2006). Authors Kurt Campbell and Michael O’Hanlon effectively argue that our role as the world’s last superpower requires an appreciation of non-military tools of counterterrorism, and they discuss the blame deserved by both political parties in creating the conditions in Iraq. The Democrats needs to recognize the need for military force and stop treating people who choose military careers as curiosities. The Republicans meanwhile, need to embrace peacekeeping and nation-building, and get over the notion that these roles are somehow beneath us. I believe we need to develop a permanent cadre of stabilization and reconstruction experts so the U.S. can perform these roles unilaterally, and to stop treating military and law enforcement counterterrorism tools as somehow mutually exclusive.

July 18, 2007 09:31 AM Link