The Myth of America's Decline: Leading the World Economy into the 1990s (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 169 and criminalization oftobacco smoking as reason why the Surgeon General might support the legalization of heroin, cocaine and marijuana markets. Mabry explains that the views ofthe two Mexican writers are highlighted "because Mexico is the major focus of U.S. narcotics diplomacy." He is justified in emphasizing Mexican drug policy given the 2000-mile U.S.-Mexico border and the fact that a great deal of the drug trade is conducted across this border. However, he largely ignores the drug-producing countries in Latin America, namely Colombia, Bolivia and Peru, and the participation of these countries' governments in U.S.-Latin American anti-drug traffic strategy. For example, the U.S. has sent military equipment, advisors and Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents to Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru as part of a stepped-up effort against drug producers and suppliers. Newspapers bring daily reports of murders in these countries which are tied to the "War on Drugs." It appears that alliances have developed between leftist guerrillas and drug traders, who usually favor right-wing economic and political policies, complicating the Drug War. These liaisons typically develop because the guerrillas and drug suppliers find themselves facing common enemies—their governments and the United States. In addition, unpopular policies, like crop eradication, have allowed such terrorist groups as Sendero Luminoso in Peru to champion local farmers and turn them against their local governments and the United States. While these and other issues involving U.S. policies in Bolivia, Peru, and Colombia are discussed, the book would be more solid had Colombian, Bolivian, and Peruvian scholars also contributed. Nevertheless, the book represents a valuable collection of documented contemporary thought about U.S. drug policy. The skewed direction ofthis policy toward drug supply and the Latin American outposts, rather than drug demand and the United States home front, is admirably portrayed. As the authors note, U.S. narcotics policy is not only failing to alleviate the problem of drugs, but is also worsening U.S. relations and vital interests in Latin America. The Myth of America's Decline: Leading the World Economy into the 1990s. By Henry R. Nau. New York: Oxford University Press, 1990. 424pp. $31.20/Cloth. Reviewed by Marijan Cvjeticanin, M.A. Candidate, SAIS. Although not as lengthy as Paul Kennedy's epic The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Henry Nau's book, The Myth ofAmerica's Decline, successfully challenges the basic assumptions and conclusions of the entire neo—realist (structuralist) school of thought. The book's main strength—which is also its main weaknessderives from one source: it represents an attempt to formulate a comprehensive framework for looking at international political and economic relations during the postwar period. Through this framework the author analyzes the past, present and future role of the United States, especially in the world economy. The book is based on three main concepts. The first is a choice-oriented perspective on historical events, which emphasizes the role of national (or 170 SAISREVIEW human) goals and policy choices on world economic and security affairs. The author argues that world politics and economics can be regarded not only in terms of cycles of power and wealth, but also as a "search for shared political community in which human societies...freely choose alternative forms ofdomestic political society and then compete to establish...a world community that satisfies higher goals of political and human development." This concept emphasizes the primary role of public policy in shaping events in the world economy, and thus contrasts with the structuralist school of analysis, which accentuates external constraints as the determinants of policy outcomes. Although it appropriately emphasizes the role ofpublic policy, this model does little to explain competition between nations. In addition, the author's assumption that nations will compete only to establish a community that satisfies some idealistic "higher goals" of political and human development is highly questionable. Nau ignores the economic, strategic and political motivations behind international competition. The second concept focuses on the role of economic policy choices. Nau argues that international economic policy "defines the specific content of four main economic policies by which each country relates to the international economy: domestic economic policy, exchange...