Economics and World Power: An Assessment of American Diplomatic History since 1789 (review)

266 SAIS REVIEW Weapons and Hope. By Freeman Dyson. New York: Harper & Row, 1984. Reviewed by William Hoffman, M.A. candidate, SAIS. Freeman Dyson brings the perspective of a committed member of America's peace movement and that ofa scientist involved inJason—a group ofadvisors to the Department of Defense—to his consideration of the nuclear dilemma. In fact, Dyson describes his effort as an attempt to explain the views of each group to the other; Dyson seeks a middle ground in the polemical struggle over disarmament. While he essentially favors nuclear disarmament as a long-term goal, he also pleads for an acceptance of the concerns of the security establishment . Dyson gives his reader an anecdotal history of nuclear weapons, strategy, and politics as a foundation for thinking about today's predicament. He expresses a deep frustration over the strategic situation today, and condemns American thinkers for their inability to move past the unworkable and immoral concepts of "mutual assured destruction" and "nuclear war fighting," both of which he sees as the pervasive strategic doctrines of our times. He also faults the theorists for their blindness to both the potential of new defensive weaponry and the nature of the Soviet Union's nuclear policy. Dyson accents that the Soviets maintain a first-strike posture, yet he does not see in this the grave implications which mesmerize so many other observers. Through his use of historical lessons, Dyson points out the psychological resistance to change that appears to him to be the largest impediment to a more sane approach to nuclear weapons. He believes that all concerned citizens must act to change the attitudes about nuclear war now held by political and military leaders, as has been done in the past. Dyson arms us with a feeling of moral certitude, which he looks upon as a source of great strength. He also puts forth an alternative model from which hope can be drawn: defensive technologies such as land- and space-based ballistic-missile defense combined with a drastic reduction, if not total removal, of offensive nuclear weapons. This conception, despite its seeming overreliance on as-yet unproven technologies and its underestimation of the difficulties involved in a drastic reduction in nuclear arsenals, still merits close examination: It is the cry of exasperation and the call to action of a civilized, knowledgeable, and engaged participant in the nuclear debate. Economics and World Power: An Assessment ofAmerican Diplomatic History since 1789. William H. Becker and Samuel F. Wells, eds. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984. pp. 474. Reviewed by Sue Oldenburg, M.A. candidate, SAIS. The battle between revisionist historians and their more traditional colleagues over the importance of economic factors in American foreign policy has produced an avalanche of treatises attempting to bridge the gaps between the two disciplines and schools of thought. By title and subject matter, Economics and World Power: An Assessment ofAmerican Diplomatic History Since 1 784 is just one of BOOK REVIEWS 267 the crowd. Yet editors William Becker and Samuel Wells and their contributing authors did try to transcend. Becker and Wells get off to a good start. The title is compelling, the preface is thought-provoking and informative, and the goals of the project worthy. Becker and Wells purport to lead their fellow academicians out of the narrow argument regarding the role of economic factors in U.S. policy, and instead encourage them to focus on the next level of inquiry: measuring the relative importance these factors as determinants in each major period of American history. if the editors had indeed accomplished what they said they had in the preface, they would have produced a seminal work. However, the disparity between their goals and results is disappointing. The reader is set up for disillusionment and this is too bad, because some of the essays are quite informative and well written. Calleo, Leffler, and Becker organized their chapters particularly well and succeeded in synthesizing a great deal of economic and historical data. As broad overviews of the periods discussed, the essays are of value. However, the book is more a reference work than anything else, and although its preface and the articles by Calleo, Leffler, and Becker...