The American Way of Strategy: U.S. Foreign Policy and the American Way of Life by MichaelLindReview by: Walter Russell MeadForeign Affairs, Vol. 86, No. 2 (Mar. - Apr., 2007), pp. 169-170Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20032308 .

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Recent Books

were a limited number of options for dealing with him. The reliance on in terviews encourages Alfonsi to develop his themes by reconstructing encounters between presidents and their senior officials. This works well for the admin istration of Bush senior, because of the detail with which the events were cov ered. But Alfonsi's method breaks down

when it comes to Bill Clinton and Bush junior, as the coverage becomes much more sketchy.

Buying Military Transformation: TechnologicalInnovation and the Defense Industry. BY PETER DOMBROWSKI

AND EUGENE GHOLZ. Columbia

University Press, 2oo6, 244 pp. $45.oo. This is an intriguing addition to the literature on military innovation. Dom browski and Gholz test the hypothesis that the transformation of U.S. military capabilities will require a transformation of the defense industrial base, as stolid old corporations are displaced by more agile and entrepreneurial firms steeped in the culture of the information economy.

They describe in detail the collection of political and industrial processes at work in four recent areas of innovation: small ships, unmanned aerial vehicles, commu nications, and systems integration. As they do so, the extent of the advantages of the traditional defense contractors becomes apparent-their close links with military customers, connections to Congress, and grasp of the extraordinary bureaucracy and regulatory framework of the Pentagon. The authors claim to have provided a new theory of military innovation, although the context is very

American. It all makes sense but is vaguely depressing.

The United States WALTER RUSSELL MEAD

TheAmerican Way ofStrategy: US. Foreign Policy andtheAmerican Way ofLHfe. BY

M I C H A E L L I N D. Oxford University

Press, 2006, 304 pp. $24.00.

The growing body of literature that grounds discussion of U.S. foreign policy in a deep knowledge of U.S. history receives a distinguished and provocative addition

with Lind's new book. Lind's encyclopedic knowledge of U.S. history and extraordi nary grasp of the intellectual history of U.S. politics qualify him to write with great authority and insight about the development of American grand strategy from the Washington administration to the present day, and this generally level headed and balanced book will significantly enhance Lind's reputation in foreign policy circles. The book's value goes far beyond the relevance of its policy prescriptions, or even of Lind's own views on what "the American way of strategy" actually is. For the rising generation of foreign policy analysts, this book is an important guide to the intellectual preparation that can equip them for the careers they hope to pursue. Lind's formulation of the purpose of American grand strategy-"to defend the American way of life by means that do not endanger the American way of life"-may not lead as quickly or as clearly as he hopes to a greater national consensus over what, at a given moment, the U.S. government should actually do. Never theless, his insistence that U.S. history is an indispensable guide for American strategy is a point well worth making as

FOREIGN AFFAIRS March/April 2007 [169]

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Recent Books

the country grapples with the uncertainties of a dangerous time.

Take ThisJob and Ship It: How Corporate GreedandBrain-DeadPoliticsAre Selling OutAmerica. BY BYRON L. DORGAN.

Thomas Dunne Books, 2006, 288 pp. $24.95.

Conservatives Betrayed: How George W Bush and Other Big Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause. BY RICHARD A. VIGUERIE.

Bonus Books, 2006, 271 pp. $24.95.

War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest GroupsAre Waging War on the

American Dream and How to Fight Back. BY LOU DOBBS. Viking, 2006,

256 pp. $24.95.

As political support for the Bush presidency erodes, the biggest question in U.S. politics is where the Jacksonian populists will go. Southern white evangelicals and northern Catholics are the two traditionally Demo cratic voting blocs whose shift into the Republican column has tilted the balance toward the GOP. Will Democrats be able to capitalize on Jacksonian discontent to rebuild a New Deal-like dominant coali tion, or at least to equalize the playing field? Three new populist books-one by

Democratic Senator Dorgan, of North Dakota, one by the seasoned Republican operator Viguerie, and one by CNN news anchor Dobbs, who is sick and tired of both parties-provide a window onto the

populist mindset in what is rapidly turning, politically, into a post-Bush era. All three are attempts to appeal to the "angry middle class" and share a common distrust of the nation's corporate and political establish ments. Although mainstream economists and many others will blanch at the policy

proposals, these are vitally important books for anyone trying to understand U.S. politics in today's difficult times.

Take This Job and Ship It represents a classic Democratic take on the populist message: evil corporations and their hired politicians and think-tank intellectuals are leading the assault on the middle class.

Drug companies come in for their share of attack, but Dorgan's chief ire is aimed at outsourcing: greedy CEOS are sending U.S. jobs to developing countries where dictatorial governments oppress workers and keep wages down.

Viguerie fingers some of the same culprits, but his indictment is broader. Evil,

wage-cutting corporate leaders are not only outsourcing U.S. jobs: they are allowing low-wage illegal immigrants into this country. Dorgan sees government as at least potentially the ally of the middle class; politicians and big government are always the enemy for Viguerie-including the "big government Republicans" who, he believes, have betrayed the conservative cause. He calls for classic populist measures: term limits, initiatives and referendums at the national level, and uncompromis ing cultural warfare against media and political elites.

Dobbs comes closest to expressing the full range of populist resentment and ideology. He shares Dorgan's opposition to outsourcing and Viguerie's horror at the pace of illegal immigration. Less rigid on social issues than Viguerie, Dobbs nevertheless accuses the media, corporate, political, and cultural elites of a wholesale abandonment of patriotism and the other core middle-class values. It may be that none of this is a reliable introduction to economic theory, but anyone who wants to understand the forces reshaping U.S.

[170] FOREIGN AFFAIRS Volume86 No.2

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