Contending with Kennan: Toward a Philosophy of American Power (review)

258 SAIS REVIEW and popular to commission a set of conference papers and lump them into a single publication. The drawbacks to this approach are in thematic cohesion and consistency of analysis. The Cornell study of the Warsaw Pact suffers in no way from these weaknesses. It is carefully plotted, cohesive both in organization and in presentation . Its problems are of a very different sort. The very title suggests what these problems are. "Alliance in Transition?" raises the specter of transformation, of a historical passage. Transition implies movement from one condition to another. The question mark is apt, indicating that, immersed as we are in the present, we are perhaps not yet in a position of retrospective detachment where the title of transition can yet be assigned. The book, however, in the sum of its authors and articles, never confronts the conceptual hub of the theme implied in its title. Is the Warsaw Pact, or the Soviet empire itself, in the process oftransition, undergoing a metamorphic passage from what it was to a new incarnation? We are never told. In fact, the most that the committee of authors can proffer is the rather tentative and totally safe judgment that the Warsaw Pact is changing. Whether or not this change is fundamental and where it is taking the Soviet Union and its "allies" is not openly explored. Instead, the book is chock-full of dark and murky implications counterpoised —often in the same concluding paragraph—with gurgling paeans. For example: Clearly, however, in the longer term, there will continue to be stresses and strains within the Warsaw Pact on political, economic, and military issues. ... At the same time, however, there is no guarantee that behind the scenes the process of foreign policy formulation will be any smoother in the future than it has been in the past. There are many issues to be resolved. . . . Any examination of the future of the East European Warsaw Treaty states is bound to begin with deep pessimism. Yet, . . . when looked at more closely, the gloom lightens. What is touted as an examination of the Soviet defense community in Eastern Europe is at heart a long, episodic editorial for Western engagement in Eastern Europe, combined with JV/iTO-Warsaw Pact mutual force reductions. These will permit the positive reinforcement—from the Soviet perspective—of the Pact's hold on Eastern Europe while somehow regenerating this glacis of the Soviet empire, "resulting in important institutional change," including "mixed economies with many free-market aspects," and "more pluralistic polities." It is a beautiful vision, ameliorating the Soviet system through accommodation rather than confrontation. But it tells us less about the Warsaw Pact than it does about the anodyne world view of the editors and authors. Contending with Kennan: Toward a Philosophy of American Power. By Barton Gellman. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1984. pp. 172 Reviewed by Jeremy Preiss, M.A. candidate, SAIS. Scrutiny of George Kennan's thoughts on American foreign policy is a veritable boom industry. Pundits of every political stripe have felt compelled to assail or BOOK REVIEWS 259 applaud Kennan's efforts to define the United States' proper world role. Narrow in scope, these analyses have typically addressed specific policy-related aspects of Kennan's writings and over time have become increasingly redundant. In Contending with Kennan, Barton Gellman eschews this much-traveled route of analysis, aspiring instead to a more ambitious and novel goal: a broad, systematic discussion of Kennan's political thought. Having immersed himself in Kennan's life work—an impressive collection of lectures, books, articles, and private papers—Gellman constructs what he calls Kennan's philosophy of American power. This is no small task, considering Kennan's aversion to systematic expression. After a brief biographical sketch, Gellman examines Kennan's perspectives on five central themes: strategy and the national interest; morality in world affairs; democratic decision making; tactics and the tools of power; and the decline of the West. With lean, graceful prose, Gellman explores each theme, imposing a measure of theoretical coherence on Kennan's many works, and admirably portraying the subtlety and consistency of his views on American power. Gellman covers much terrain, though his brisk review of Kennan...