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Volume 96, Number 3
PRESENT AT THE DESTRUCTION?

The Plot Against American Foreign Policy 2
Can the Liberal Order Survive?
G. John Ikenberry
A Vision of Trump at War 10

How the President Could Stumble Into Conflict
Philip Gordon
Is America Still Safe for Democracy? 20

Why the United States Is in Danger of Backsliding
COVE R: T HOMAS DAN T HONY
Robert Mickey, Steven Levitsky, and Lucan Ahmad Way
The Case for Trumps Foreign Policy 30

The Right People, the Right Positions
Matthew Kroenig
May/June 2017
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ESSAYS
The Liberal Order Is Rigged 36
Fix It Now or Watch It Wither
Jeff D. Colgan and Robert O. Keohane
The False Promise of Protectionism 45
Why Trumps Trade Policy Could Backfire
Douglas A. Irwin
Intelligence and the Presidency 57
How to Get It Right
Jami Miscik
Getting Tough on North Korea 65
How to Hit Pyongyang Where It Hurts
Joshua Stanton, Sung-Yoon Lee, and Bruce Klingner
Irans Next Supreme Leader 76
The Islamic Republic After Khamenei
Sanam Vakil and Hossein Rassam
Brazils Never-Ending Corruption Crisis 87
Why Radical Transparency Is the Only Fix
Brian Winter
How to Maintain Americas Edge 95
Increase Funding for Basic Science
L. Rafael Reif
The Boom Was a Blip 104
Getting Used to Slow Growth
Ruchir Sharma
ON FOREIGNAFFAIRS.COM
Peter Orszag on the James Goldgeier and Kathleen McNamara
Republicans plan for Elizabeth Saunders on a on Trump and the future
health care. boring foreign policy. of the EU.
May/June 2017
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REVIEWS & RESPONSES
Tortured Souls 116
The Crimes of the War on Terrorism
Antonio Taguba and Scott Cooper
Democracy on the Brink 121

Protecting the Republic in Trumps America
Suzanne Mettler
Libyan Ghosts 127

Searching for Truth After Qaddafi
Robert F. Worth
Hack Job 133

How America Invented Cyberwar
Emily Parker
Mind Games 139

The Partnership That Upended Social Science
Yuen Foong Khong
Asia in the Trump Era 146

From Pivot to Peril?
Bilahari Kausikan
Recent Books 154
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Archibald Cary Coolidge, Founding Editor
Volume 1, Number 1 September 1922
May/June 2017
May/June 2017 Volume 96, Number 3
Published by the Council on Foreign Relations
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CONTRIBUTORS
JAMI MISCIK began her 22-year career with the CIA as an
economic analyst, eventually rising to the post of deputy
director for intelligenceleading the agencys analytic
branch, which produces the Presidents Daily Brief, among
many other things. In 2005, she left Langley for Lehman
Brothers, where she served as global head of sovereign risk.
She is now the CEO of Kissinger Associates. In Intelligence
and the Presidency (page 57), Miscik describes the right
way to configure the relationship between the producers of
intelligence and its most important consumer.
Born in Venezuela to Jewish parents who had fled Eastern

Europe in the late 1930s, L. RAFAEL REIF came to the United
States in 1974 as a graduate student who spoke barely any
English. Six years later, he joined the faculty of the Massa
chusetts Institute of Technology, eventually becoming head
of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science and then, in 2012, the universitys president. In
How to Maintain Americas Edge (page 95), Reifwho
holds or shares 13 patentsargues that government funding
is essential for scientific breakthroughs.
SUZANNE MET TLER began her career working as an

organizer for NETWORK, a Catholic social-justice
group, advocating policies to reduce international poverty,
improve childcare, and advance womens rights. She
went on to become a political scientist and has spent the
past two decades producing groundbreaking studies of
how contemporary government actually works. Now a
professor at Cornell University, in Democracy on the
Brink (page 121), she warns that U.S. President Donald
Trump poses a threat to liberal democracy, and she outlines
what can be done to stop him.
Partway through a Ph.D. program at Columbia University,

BILAHARI KAUSIKAN decided that he didnt want to be an
academic. So he dropped out and joined Singapores
foreign service. Over the next three decades, Kausikan
became one of his countrys most respected diplomats,
serving in a variety of roles, including permanent secretary
and permanent representative to the United Nations. Now
ambassador-at-large at Singapores Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Kausikan, in Asia in the Trump Era (page 146),
looks at how U.S. policy in the region might change.
C
overing the Trump administration Damage is already being done. In our
is difficult because it requires lead package, G. John Ikenberry details
disentangling three strands of its the harm the administration is inflict-
behavior: the normal, the incompetent, ing on the liberal international order.
and the dangerous. Philip Gordon traces how a continuation
The normal aspectthe administra- of the administrations early course
tions conventional Republican policies could lead to three different wars. And
and appointmentsis, broadly speaking, Robert Mickey, Steven Levitsky, and
politics as usual. The amateur aspect Lucan Way document the ongoing
its early fumbling and bumblingis deterioration of American democratic
what one finds every time power changes norms and practices.
hands, exacerbated by an unusually Foreign Affairs, as its editorial mani-
inexperienced incoming team. The danger festo stated almost a century ago, will
is unique. tolerate wide differences of opinion.
Every administration spins, fights As always, our pages and pixels are open
with the press and the bureaucracy, to all articles that are competent and
pushes its own agenda, and tries to well informed, representing honest
evade intrusive oversight. But ordinary opinions seriously held and convincingly
White Houses do not repeatedly lie, expressed. We will not hesitate to offer
declare war on mainstream media readers defenses of administration policy,
institutions, pursue radical goals while such as the article by Matthew Kroenig
disdaining professional input, and refuse that rounds out the package. But nor will
to accept independent scrutiny. we shy away from offering criticisms and
How seriously you take these behaviors warnings as appropriate. And rarely, if
depends on how you assess the motiva- ever, have those criticisms and warnings
tions behind them, generating a game seemed so urgent and important.
that some have taken to calling Stupid Gideon Rose, Editor
or nefarious? or Veep or House of Cards?
Do slow appointments signal poor
management or a deliberate attempt to
deconstruct the administrative state,
as Trump guru Steve Bannon says? Is
dismissing experienced senior officials
en masse just a clumsy way of handling
a presidential transition or a purge of
potential obstacles and whistleblowers?
Are all the lies mere venting or a delib-
erate plot to distract critics and undermine
reasoned discourse?
Trump has abdicated responsibility for
the world the United States built, and
only time will tell the full extent of the
damage he will wreak.
G. John Ikenberry
The Plot Against American Is America Still Safe for Democracy?

T HOMAS DAN T HONY
Foreign Policy Robert Mickey, Steven Levitsky, and

G. John Ikenberry 2 Lucan Ahmad Way 20
A Vision of Trump at War The Case for Trumps Foreign Policy

Philip Gordon 10 Matthew Kroenig 30
Return to Table of Contents
of the liberal world order. He has broken

The Plot Against with 70 years of tradition by signaling the
end of U.S. support for the European

American Foreign Union: endorsing Brexit and making
common cause with right-wing European
Policy parties that seek to unravel the postwar
European project. In his inaugural address,
Trump declared, From this moment on,
Can the Liberal its going to be America first, and he
Order Survive? announced his intention to rethink the
central accomplishments of the U.S.-led
G. John Ikenberry orderthe trade and alliance systems.
Where previous presidents have invoked
the countrys past foreign policy triumphs,
I
s the world witnessing the demise Trump describes horrible deals and
of the U.S.-led liberal order? If so, allies that arent paying their bills. His
this is not how it was supposed to is a vision of a dark and dangerous world
happen. The great threats were supposed in which the United States is besieged by
to come from hostile revisionist powers Islamic terrorism, immigrants, and crime
seeking to overturn the postwar order. as its wealth and confidence fade. In
The United States and Europe were his revisionist narrative, the era of Pax
supposed to stand shoulder to shoulder Americanathe period in which the
to protect the gains reaped from 70 years United States wielded the most power
of cooperation. Instead, the worlds most on the world stageis defined above all
powerful state has begun to sabotage by national loss and decline.
the order it created. A hostile revisionist Trumps challenge to the liberal
power has indeed arrived on the scene, order is all the more dangerous because
but it sits in the Oval Office, the beating it comes with a casual disrespect for the
heart of the free world. Across ancient norms and values of liberal democracy
and modern eras, orders built by great itself. The president has questioned the
powers have come and gonebut they legitimacy of federal judges, attacked the
have usually ended in murder, not suicide. press, and shown little regard for the
U.S. President Donald Trumps every Constitution or the rule of law. Facts,
instinct runs counter to the ideas that have evidence, scientific knowledge, due dili
underpinned the postwar international gence, reasoned discoursethe essential
system. Trade, alliances, international law, elements of democratic political life
multilateralism, environmental protection, are disparaged daily. One must look
torture, and human rightson all these long and hard to find any utterances by
core issues, Trump has made pronounce Trump about the virtues of the nations
ments that, if acted on, would bring to political traditions, the genius of the
an end the United States role as guarantor Founding Fathers, or the great struggles
and accomplishments of liberal democracy.
G. JOHN IKENBERRY is Albert G. Milbank
Professor of Politics and International Affairs at This silence speaks loudly. And in
Princeton University. February, when asked on Fox News
2 f o r e i g n a f fa i r s
The Plot Against American Foreign Policy
why he respected Russian President DONT KNOW WHAT YOU GOT

Vladimir Putin even though he is a Trumps dark narrative of national decline
killer, Trump dismissed 250 years of ignores the great American accomplish
national ideals and the work of generations ment of the twentieth century: the build
of Americans who have strived to reach ing of the liberal international order.
the moral high ground, responding, What, Constructed in the years following
you think our countrys so innocent? World War II, the order is complex and
The profundity of this political mo- sprawling, organized around economic
ment is greater still because it occurs openness, multilateral institutions, security
amid a wider crisis across the liberal cooperation, democratic solidarity, and
democratic world. The centrist and internationalist ideals. For decades, the
progressive governing coalitions that United States has served as the systems
built the postwar order have weak- first citizen, providing leadership and
ened. Liberal democracy itself appears public goodsanchoring the alliances,
fragile, vulnerable in particular to stabilizing the world economy, fostering
far-right populism. Some date these cooperation, and championing the values
troubles to the global financial crisis of openness and liberal democracy. Europe
of 2008, which widened economic and Japan helped build the order, tying
inequality and fueled grievances across their fortunes to multilateral organizations
the advanced industrial democracies, and enlightened U.S. leadership. The
the original patrons and beneficiaries bilateral alliance with the United States is
of the order. In recent years, Western enshrined in Japans constitution. Nato
publics have increasingly come to regard played a critical role in Germanys postwar
the liberal international order not as a rebirth and, half a century later, its peaceful
source of stability and solidarity among reunification. Over time, more states
like-minded states but as a global play- signed up, attracted to the fair-minded
ground for the rich and powerful. Trump rules and norms of the order. A system of
is less a cause than a consequence of alliances now stretches across the globe,
the failings of liberal democracy. But linking the United States to Europe, East
now that he is in office, his agenda Asia, and the Middle East.
promises to further undermine its Compared with past ordersimperial
foundations. and anarchic systems of various sorts,
If the liberal international order is from the Greek and Chinese worlds of
to survive, leaders and constituencies the classical era to the nineteenth-century
around the world that still support it European imperial systemthe liberal
will need to step up. Much will rest on order stands alone. Choose your metric.
the shoulders of Prime Minister Shinzo But in terms of wealth creation, the
Abe of Japan and Chancellor Angela provision of physical security and
Merkel of Germany, the only two leaders economic stability, and the promotion
of consequence left standing who support of human rights and political protections,
it. Trump has abdicated responsibility no other international order in history
for the world the United States built, comes close. The liberal order may have
and only time will tell the full extent of its shortcomingscostly and ill-advised
the damage he will wreak. wars have been fought in its name, and
May/June 2017 3
G. John Ikenberry
vast economic and social injustices policymakers have begun to talk about
remainbut it has empowered people building an eu nuclear weapons program.
across the world who seek a better life China, meanwhile, has already begun to
within a relatively open and rules-based step into the geopolitical vacuum Trump
global system. is creating: in January, for example, in a
When Trump sees the United States speech at the World Economic Forum,
losing to other countries, then, he in Davos, Chinese President Xi Jinping
misses the bigger picture. As the most launched Beijings bid for leadership of
powerful state in the system, the United the world economy. As the order unravels,
States has agreed to restrain itself and Trump may succeed in bullying some
operate within an array of regional and U.S. partners into a slightly better deal
global institutions. In 1945, at the meeting on trade or defense burden-sharing, but
in San Francisco that established the un, he will squander a 70-year investment
President Harry Truman declared, We in a system that has made the United
all have to recognize, no matter how great States more secure, more prosperous,
our strength, that we must deny ourselves and more influential.
the license to do always as we please.
The United States became, in effect, a DANGEROUS IDEAS
user-friendly superpower. Its power was Trumps revisionism is dangerous
loosely institutionalized, making it more precisely because it attacks the logic
predictable and approachable. The country that undergirds the United States
may spend more on security than its global position. There are voices in
partners, but they host and subsidize the administrationSecretary of
U.S. forces and offer political solidarity. Defense James Mattis and National
Washington receives geopolitical access Security Adviser H. R. McMaster
to Europe and East Asia, where it still that do not appear to share Trumps
wields unrivaled influence. It gives up destructive instincts. But the worldview
a little of what Trump sees as unused of the president and his base has long
leverage, but in return it gets a better been clear, and it represents a frontal
deal: a world of friendly states willing assault on the core convictions of the
to cooperate. postwar U.S. global project.
Trumps transactional view of The first is internationalism: the
international relations misses the belief that the United States can best
larger, interdependent logic of the advance its economic, political, and
U.S.-led system. The United States security interests by leading the order
remains the linchpin of this order, and engaging deeply with the major
and if it withdraws, the architecture of regions of the world. This was the
bargains and commitments will give hard-earned lesson of the twentieth
way. Countries that expected to live century. From the 1930s onward, the
within this system will need to make United States has faced the prospect
other plans. On the campaign trail, of a world divided into competing
Trump said that it might be time for empires, blocs, and spheres of influence
Japan and South Korea to get their own controlled by hostile great powers.
nuclear weapons, and some European The building of the postwar order
Just the two of us: Angela Merkel and Shinzo Abe in Meseberg, Germany, May 2016
was driven by a bipartisan aspiration ascendancy of the liberal democratic
to reject such a world. world. As the historian Paul Johnson
Yet when Trump looks beyond U.S. has argued, in the decades following
borders, he does not appear to see an World War II, the open trading system
orderdefined as a strategic environ- ushered in the most rapid and prolonged
ment with rules, institutions, partners, economic expansion in world history.
and relationships. Not surprisingly, Since then, it has provided the economic
therefore, he sees no larger significance glue that has bound Europe, East Asia,
in U.S. alliances. He has made it clear and the rest of the world together. The
that the United States commitment to World Trade Organization, championed
allies and regions is contingent. It is a by the United States, has developed
business proposition, and allies need elaborate trade rules and dispute-
to pay up. settlement mechanisms that make the
The second fundamental conviction system fair and legitimate, and the
that Trump rejects is the U.S. commit- organization has given the United
HANNI BAL HANSCHKE / REUTE RS
ment to open trade. This responsibility States tools to defend itself in trade
dates back to the 1934 Reciprocal Trade conflicts with countries such as China.
Agreements Act, which started the slow Every postwar president has regarded
process of reopening the world economy this open system as integral to the
after the Great Depression. Ever since, prosperity of the United States and to
trade has played a central role in U.S. its larger geopolitical goalsuntil Trump.
foreign policy. It has strengthened the For decades, Trump has displayed a more
U.S. economy and driven the postwar mercantilist, or zero-sum, understanding
May/June 2017 5
G. John Ikenberry
of trade. In his view, trade is a game of through the un and the U.S. alliance
winners and losers, not an exchange that system leverages U.S. power. When the
generates mutual gains. Small wonder, United States embraces multilateralism,
then, that the new administration withdrew it gains greater public acceptance in
from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (tpp) other countries, particularly in Western
and has pledged to renegotiate the North democracies, making it easier for their
American Free Trade Agreement. Even governments to support U.S. policy.
the European Union, according to Trump, An America first attitude toward
represents merely a tool Germany uses global rules and cooperation will breed
to beat the United States on trade, as a generation of anti-Americanismand
he said in an interview in January. it will take years to undo the damage.
A third conviction underpinning U.S. Fourth, Trump disdains the multicul-
global leadership has been the United tural and open character of American
States support for multilateral rules and society. U.S. power is often denominated
institutions. This is what has made U.S. in units of gdp and military spending.
power so uniqueand legitimate. After But American society itself has been a
World War II, the United States proceeded sort of hidden asset. The United States
to create a global web of institutions and is a nation of immigrants, and its openness
regimes. As a result, other countries has attracted people the world over.
realized that they could benefit from U.S. Racial, ethnic, and religious diversity
ascendancy. Global institutions fostered makes the U.S. economy more dynamic,
cooperation and allowed Washington to and countless familial and cultural linkages
attract allies, making its global presence tie the United States to the rest of the
more acceptable and durable. These world. Immigrants come to the United
institutions helped the international States to make their mark, but they do
order solve common problems. And not entirely leave the old world behind,
when the Cold War ended, no anti- and the resulting networks boost U.S.
American bloc formed. To the contrary, influence in real, if intangible, ways.
countries gravitated toward a global This aspect of U.S. leadership is
liberal internationalist system. The un, often forgotten, but it becomes visible
the Bretton Woods monetary system, when threatened, as it is today. The
arms control regimes, environmental Trump administrations flagship policies
agreements, human rights conventions on immigrationbuilding a wall along
these features of the order are easy to the Mexican border, banning immigrants
take for granted, but they would not exist from six Muslim-majority countries,
without a persistent U.S. commitment. and temporarily barring all refugees
Trump has shown little respect for have sent an unmistakable message to
this accomplishment. He has signaled the world. But more worrying than the
that he is willing to rethink the United specific policies themselves are the
States financial and political commitment ethnonationalist, nativist ideas behind
to the un. He disdains international law them. For some of his advisers, such as
and endorses torture. Trump has yet Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller,
to grasp what past presidents learned, immigration not only threatens national
sometimes the hard way: that working security; it also poses a cultural danger,
as it plants the seeds of multiculturalism
and accelerates the decline of a white
Christian society. What has made the
U.S. experience with immigration work
so well is the notion that the U.S. polity
is based on civic nationalism, not ethnic Unlikely Partners
nationalismthat the United States Chinese Reformers, Western
Economists, and the Making
political community is defined by the of Global China
Constitution, by citizenship, and by Julian Gewirtz
shared values, not by ethnicity or religion. At a time when the Chinese
Trumps advisers speak the language of model again seems to be
ethnic nationalism, and the world has creaking, President Xi Jinping
would be wise to heed the
taken note. Protests against the new message of Gewirtzs book:
administrations immigration policies that China does best when it
have broken out in cities all over the is open to foreign ideas.
Howard French,
world. The United States great myth
Wall Street Journal
about itselfthat it offers refuge to $39.95
the tired, the poor, and the huddled
masses yearning to breathe free Americas Dream
remains a powerful source of the United Palace
Middle East Expertise and
States appeal abroad. But Trump is the Rise of the National
threatening to extinguish it. Security State
Finally, every U.S. president from Osamah F. Khalil

Woodrow Wilson to Barack Obama has Carefully argued and well
crafted . . . In a detailed look
maintained that an enduring community at the nexus of American
of liberal democracies exists, and that academic expertise on the
democracies possess a unique capacity to Middle East and Washingtons
diplomatic and intelligence
cooperate. During the Cold War, there was power centers, from the
an authentic belieffelt in Washington Wilson era through the
but also in European and Asian capitals Obama presidency, Khalil
keeps his prose crisp and his
that the free world was more than a judgments sober.
temporary alliance to defend against the John Waterbury,
Soviet Union. In 1949, as he introduced Foreign Affairs
the text of the treaty for the proposed $35.00
Atlantic alliance in Washington, U.S. Far-Right Politics

Secretary of State Dean Acheson argued in Europe
that the worlds democracies shared Jean-Yves Camus and
fundamental bondsthe strongest kind Nicolas Lebourg
of ties, because they are based on moral Camus and Lebourg present an in-depth, thoroughly
conviction, on acceptance of the same researched look at a faction of European political
movements.
values in life. Initially, this community Mattie Cook, Library Journal
comprised only the United States, Western Belknap Press | $29.95
Europe, and Japan, but since the end of
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS | www.hup.harvard.edu
the Cold War, it has expanded.
7
G. John Ikenberry
Trump disdains this vision of the order, better world after the war ended. They
refusing to distinguish between liberal pledged to establish an international
democratic friends and autocratic rivals system based on the principles of
in January, he said that he trusts Merkel openness, cooperative security, and social
and Putin equally. In response, some and economic advancement. Today, the
western Europeans now view the Trump leaders of the liberal democratic world
administrationand therefore the United should present a charter of their own, to
Statesas a greater threat than Putins renew their support for an open and
Russia. In February, for example, an rules-based order.
editorial in the German newsmagazine Der The United States friends and allies
Spiegel called on Europe to start planning need to make it tough for Trump to
its political and economic defenses. pursue an America first agenda. They
Against Americas dangerous president. need to show that they are indispens-
able partners, increasing their military
IF NOT AMERICA . . . spending and taking the lead on issues
If the liberal international order is to such as climate change, nuclear prolif-
survive, leaders and citizens in the eration, trade cooperation, and sustain-
United States and elsewhere will need able development. Abe and Merkel, the
to defend its institutions, bargains, and new leaders of the free world, will have
accomplishments. Those seeking to to sustain liberal internationalism for as
defend it have one big advantage: more long as Trump is in office. Abe should
people, within the United States and keep promoting liberal trade agreements,
abroad, stand to lose from its destruc- modeled on the tpp, and Merkel, as the
tion than stand to win. leader of the country that perhaps most
The defenders of the order should start embodies the virtues and accomplishments
by reclaiming the master narrative of the of the postwar liberal order, is uniquely
last 70 years. The era of U.S. leadership positioned to speak as the moral voice
did not usher in the end of history, but of the liberal democratic world. U.S.
it did set the stage for world-historical allies also need to engage in what the
advances. Since the end of the Cold War, Japanese call gaiatsuforeign pressure.
over a billion people have been raised out The French government had the right
of poverty and hundreds of millions of idea when it proposed placing a surtax
children have been educated. The world on U.S. goods if the Trump administration
has been spared great-power war, and a pulled out of the Paris climate agreement.
sense of common responsibility for the The United States needs allies in part
well-being of the planet has emerged. because they will push back when it
In trying to reclaim this narrative, goes off track.
politicians and public intellectuals should Those seeking to rebuild the worlds
take their lead from U.S. President troubled trading system will need to think
Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime about how it can once again strengthen
Minister Winston Churchill. In 1941, the national economies. Since World War II,
two leaders met in Newfoundland and policymakers have used trade agreements
signed the Atlantic Charter, a declaration to increase the flow of goods and invest
of their shared commitment to building a ment. The Harvard economist Dani
Rodrik has argued that governments with the collapse of the Soviet Union,
should instead view trade agreements the liberal order expanded across the
as exercises in which governments globe, and sowed the seeds for todays
provide access to one anothers policy crisis: it lost its embedded, protective
space to manage open trade. The goal is qualities and was increasingly seen as a
not primarily to lower barriers to trade neoliberal project aimed at facilitating
and investment; it is to cooperate to the transactions of globetrotting
stabilize the flows, and in a way that capitalists.
protects the interests of workers and the Today, the defenders of the order
middle class. In his last address to the will need to recapture its essence as a
un General Assembly, in September, security community, a grouping of
Obama hinted at this agenda, calling countries bound together by common
on countries to preserve the gains values, shared interests, and mutual
from global economic integration while vulnerabilities. Trump will do a lot of
cooperating in new ways to reduce the damage to this order, but the decisions of
ravages of soulless capitalism, combating othersin the United States and abroad
inequality within countries and strength will determine whether it is ultimately
ening the position of workers. The destroyed. The best lack all conviction,
challenge ahead is to build on these visions while the worst / Are full of passionate
of how the open world economy might intensity, William Butler Yeats wrote
adapt to the deep economic insecurities in the aftermath of World War I. If the
across the advanced industrial world. liberal democratic world is to survive,
The liberal international order is in its champions will have to find their
crisis for reasons that predate the Trump voice and act with more conviction.
administration. It has lost something
critical in the decades since its birth
during the Cold Warnamely, a shared
sense that a community of liberal democ
racies exists and that it is made physically
safer and economically more secure by
staying united. Across the democratic
world, the first generation of postwar
policymakers and citizens understood
that the liberal order provided the political
and economic space in which countries
could prosper in safety. The political
scientist John Ruggie has described
this order as embedded liberalism:
international agreements, embodied in
the Bretton Woods system, gave govern
ments discretion to regulate their econ
omies, allowing them to reconcile free
trade with economic stability and policies
aimed at ensuring full employment. But
May/June 2017 9
adversaries into believing he was so

A Vision of Trump volatile he might do something crazy
if they failed to meet his demandsa

at War tactic that Trump, whose reputation for
volatility is firmly established, seems
particularly well suited to employ.
How the President Could The problem, however, is that nego
Stumble Into Conflict tiations sometimes fail, and adversaries
are themselves often brazen and unpre
Philip Gordon dictable. After all, Nixons madman
theorydesigned to force the North
Vietnamese to compromisedid not
J
ust a few months into the Trump work. Moreover, putting the theory into
administration, it still isnt clear practice requires the capacity to act
what course the presidents foreign judiciously at the appropriate moment,
policy will ultimately take. What is something that Trump, as president,
clear, however, is that the impulsiveness, has yet to demonstrate. And whereas a
combativeness, and recklessness that failed business deal allows both parties
characterized Donald Trumps election to walk away unscathed if disappointed,
campaign have survived the transition a failed diplomatic gambit can lead to
into the presidency. Since taking office, political instability, costly trade disputes,
Trump has continued to challenge the proliferation of dangerous weapons,
accepted norms, break with diplomatic or even war. History is littered with
traditions, and respond to perceived examples of leaders who, like Trump,
slights or provocations with insults or came to power fueled by a sense of
threats of his own. The core of his national grievance and promises to force
foreign policy message is that the United adversaries into submission, only to end
States will no longer allow itself to be up mired in a military, diplomatic, or
taken advantage of by friends or foes economic conflict they would come
abroad. After decades of losing to other to regret.
countries, he says he is going to put Will that happen to Trump? Nobody
America first and start winning again. knows. But what if one could? What if,
It could be that Trump is simply like Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens
staking out tough bargaining positions as A Christmas Carol, Trump could meet a
a tactical matter, the approach to nego ghost from the future offering a vision
tiations he has famously called the art of where his policies might lead by the
of the deal. President Richard Nixon end of his term before he decides on
long ago developed the madman theory, them at its start?
the idea that he could frighten his It is possible that such a ghost would
show him a version of the future in which
PHILIP GORDON is a Senior Fellow at the his administration, after a turbulent start,
Council on Foreign Relations. From 2013 to moderated over time, proved more
2015, he was Special Assistant to the President
and White House Coordinator for the Middle conventional than predicted, and even
East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region. had some success in negotiating, as he
A Vision of Trump at War
has pledged, better deals. But there is his chief strategist, Steve Bannon; and
a real risk that events will turn out far his defense secretary, James Mattis. Some
worsea future in which Trumps erratic of Mattis former military colleagues
style and confrontational policies destroy said he had a 30-year-long obsession
an already fragile world order and lead with Iran, noting, as one marine told
to open conflictin the most likely cases, Politico, Its almost like he wants to get
with Iran, China, or North Korea. even with them.
In the narratives that follow, everything During his campaign and first
described as having taken place before months in office, Trump whipped up
mid-March 2017 actually happened. That anti-Iranian feelings and consistently
which takes place after that date isat misled the public about what the nuclear
least at the time of publicationfiction. deal entailed. He falsely insisted that
the United States received absolutely
STUMBLING INTO WAR WITH IRAN nothing from it, that it permitted Iran
It is September 2017, and the White to eventually get the bomb, and that it
House is consumed with a debate about gave $150 billion to Iran (apparently
options for escalation with Iran. Another referring to a provision of the deal that
dozen Americans have been killed in allowed Iran to access some $50 billion
an Iranian-sponsored attack on U.S. of its own money that had been frozen
soldiers in Iraq, and the president is in foreign accounts). Critics claimed
frustrated that previous air strikes in that the rhetoric was reminiscent of the
Iran failed to deter this sort of deadly Bush administrations exaggerations of
aggression. He is tempted to retaliate Iraqs weapons of mass destruction pro
much more aggressively this time but grams in the run-up to the Iraq war. In
also knows that doing so risks involving February 2017, in response to an Iranian
U.S. troops even further in what is ballistic missile test, Flynn brashly
already a costly and unpopular warthe declared that he was officially putting
very sort of mess he had promised to Iran on notice. Two days later, the
avoid. Looking back, he now sees that administration announced a range of
this conflict probably became inevitable new sanctions on 25 Iranian individuals
when he named his foreign policy team and companies involved in the ballistic
and first started to implement his new missile program.
approach toward Iran. Perhaps just as predictably, Iran
Well before his election, of course, dismissed the administrations tough
Trump had criticized the Iran nuclear talk. It continued to test its missiles,
agreement as the worst deal ever nego insisting that neither the nuclear deal nor
tiated and promised to put a stop to un Security Council resolutions prohib
Irans aggressive push to destabilize ited it from doing so. Ali Khamenei, Irans
and dominate the Middle East. Some supreme leader, even taunted Trump for
of his top advisers were deeply hostile his controversial immigration and travel
to Iran and known to favor a more ban, thanking him on Twitter for revealing
confrontational approach, including his the true face of the United States. Tehran
first national security adviser, Michael also continued its policy of shipping arms
Flynn; his cia director, Mike Pompeo; to the Houthi rebels in Yemen and
May/June 2017 11
Philip Gordon
providing military assistance to Bashar al- release of all U.S. detainees and a return
Assads regime in Syria, neither of to negotiations to address the nuclear
which proved particularly costly to the deals flaws. Instead of submitting to
Iranian treasury. U.S. efforts to get Russia these demands, Iran responded with
to limit Irans role in Syria were ignored, defiance. Its new president, a hard-liner
adding to the White Houses frustration. who had defeated Hassan Rouhani in
To the surprise of many, growing the May 2017 election, declared that in
U.S. pressure on Iran did not immedi- the face of U.S. noncompliance, Iran
ately lead to the collapse of the nuclear would resume certain prohibited nuclear
deal. As soon as he took office, Trump activities, including testing advanced
ended the Obama administrations practice centrifuges and expanding its stockpile
of encouraging banks and international of low-enriched uranium. Washington
companies to ensure that Iran benefited was suddenly abuzz with talk of the
economically from the deal. And he need for a new effort to choke off Iran
expressed support for congressional economically or even a preventive
plans to sanction additional Iranian military strike.
entities for terrorism or human rights The Trump administration had been
violations, as top officials insisted was confident that other countries would
permitted by the nuclear deal. Iran com back its tougher approach and had
plained that these backdoor sanctions warned allies and adversaries alike
would violate the agreement yet took that they must choose between doing
no action. By March 2017, U.S. officials business with Iran and doing business
were concluding internallyand some with the United States. But the pres-
of the administrations supporters began sure did not work as planned. China,
to gloatthat Trumps tougher approach France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia,
was succeeding. South Korea, and the United Kingdom
Different behavior on either side all said that the deal had been working
could have prevented relations from before the United States sought to
deteriorating. But ultimately, the deal renegotiate it, and they blamed Wash
could not be sustained. In the early ington for precipitating the crisis. The
summer of 2017, real signs of trouble eu even passed legislation making it
started to emerge. Under pressure from illegal for European companies to coop
hard-line factions within Iran, which erate with U.S. secondary sanctions.
had their own interest in spiking the Trump fumed and vowed they would
deal, Tehran had continued its provoca pay for their betrayal.
tive behavior, including the unjustified As the United States feuded with
detention of dual U.S.-Iranian citizens, its closest partners, tensions with Iran
throughout the spring. In June, after escalated further. Frustrated by contin-
completing a review of his Iran policy, ued Iranian support for the Houthi
Trump put Irans Islamic Revolutionary rebels in Yemen, the Pentagon stepped
Guard Corps on the State Departments up patrols in the Strait of Hormuz and
list of foreign terrorist organizations loosened the rules of engagement for
and announced that continued sanctions U.S. forces. When an Iranian patrol
relief would be contingent on Irans boat aggressively approached a U.S.
Lets get ready to rumble: a rally in Pyongyang, January 2016

cruiser, in circumstances that are still Trump authorized a cruise missile strike
disputed, the U.S. ship responded on a known Islamic Revolutionary Guard
with deadly defensive force, killing Corps intelligence headquarters, destroying
25 Iranian sailors. three buildings and killing a dozen offi cers
The outrage in Iran bolstered support and an unknown number of civilians.
for the regime and led to widespread Trumps advisers predicted that Iran
calls for revenge, which the countrys would back down, but as nationalist fervor
new president could not resist. Less than grew in Iran, Tehran escalated the con-
a week later, the Iranian-backed militia flict, calculating that the American public
group Kataib Hezbollah killed six U.S. had no desire to spend more blood or
soldiers in Iraq. With the American treasure in the Middle East. Kataib
public demanding retaliation, some Hezbollah and other Shiite militias in Iraq,
called for diplomacy, recalling how, in some directed by Iran and others acting
January 2016, U.S. Secretary of State independently, launched further attacks on
John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister U.S. personnel. Tehran forced the weak
Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke directly government in Baghdad to demand the
to defuse the situation after U.S. sailors Americans departure from Iraq, which
drifted into Iranian waters. This time, would deal a huge blow to the U.S.-led
the eu offered to mediate the crisis. campaign against the Islamic State, or isis.
But the administration wanted nothing As Washington reimposed the
to do with what it considered the Obama sanctions that had been suspended by
administrations humiliating appeasement the nuclear deal, Iran abandoned the
KCNA
of Iran. Instead, to teach Iran a lesson, limits on its enrichment of uranium,
May/June 2017 13
Philip Gordon
expelled the un monitors, and announced side had predicted, a clash in the South
that it was no longer bound by the agree- China Sea has led to casualties on both
ment. With the cia concluding that Iran sides and heavy exchanges of fire between
was now back on the path to a nuclear the U.S. and Chinese navies. There are
weapons capability, Trumps top advisers rumors that China has placed its nuclear
briefed the president in the Oval Office. forces on high alert. The conflict that
Some counseled restraint, but others, led so many long feared has begun.
by Bannon and Mattis, insisted that the Of the many foreign targets of
only credible option was to destroy the Trumps withering criticism during the
Iranian nuclear infrastructure with a campaign and the early months of his
massive preventive strike, while reinforcing presidency, China topped the list. As
the U.S. presence in Iraq to deal with the a candidate, Trump repeatedly accused
likely Iranian retaliation. Pompeo, a long- the country of destroying American
standing advocate of regime change in jobs and stealing U.S. secrets. We cant
Iran, argued that such a strike might also continue to allow China to rape our
lead to a popular uprising and the ousting country, he said. Bannon, who early
of the supreme leader, an encouraging in the administration set up a shadow
notion that Trump himself had heard national security council in the White
think-tank experts endorse on television. House, had even predicted conflict with
Once again, nervous allies stepped in China. Were going to war in the South
and tried to broker a diplomatic solution. China Sea in five to ten years, he said
They tried to put the 2015 nuclear deal in March 2016. Theres no doubt
back in place, arguing that it now looked about that.
attractive by comparison. But it was too Not long after the election, Trump
late. U.S. strikes on Irans nuclear facil took a congratulatory phone call from
ities in Arak, Fordow, Isfahan, Natanz, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen,
and Parchin led to retaliatory counter breaking with decades of diplomatic
strikes against U.S. forces in Iraq, U.S. tradition and suggesting a potential
retaliation against targets in Iran, terror change in the United States one China
ist attacks against Americans in Europe policy. It wasnt clear whether the move
and the Middle East, and vows from was inadvertent or deliberate, but either
Tehran to rebuild its nuclear program way, Trump defended his approach and
bigger and better than before. The presi insisted that the policy was up for nego
dent who had vowed to stop squander tiation unless China made concessions
ing American lives and resources in the on trade. Did China ask us if it was
Middle East now found himself wonder OK to devalue their currency (making
ing how he had ended up at war there. it hard for our companies to compete),
heavily tax our products going into their
FIGHTING CHINA country (the U.S. doesnt tax them) or
It is October 2017, and experts are calling to build a massive military complex in
it the most dangerous confrontation the middle of the South China Sea? he
between nuclear powers since the Cuban tweeted. I dont think so! In February
missile crisis. After a U.S.-Chinese trade 2017, after a call with Chinese President
war escalated well beyond what either Xi Jinping, Trump announced that the
Think Otherwise.
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United States would honor the one June 2017, when North Korea tested
China policy after all. Asia experts yet another long-range missile, which
were relieved, but it must have infuriated brought it closer to having the ability
the president that so many thought he to strike the United States, Trump
had backed down. Trump lost his first demanded that China check its small
fight with Xi and he will be looked at as ally and announced serious conse
a paper tiger, Shi Yinhong, a professor quences if it refused. China had no
at Renmin University of China, told The interest in promoting North Koreas
New York Times. nuclear capacity, but it worried that
There were other early warning signs completely isolating Pyongyang, as
of the clashes to come. At his confirma- Trump was demanding, could cause the
tion hearings for secretary of state, Rex regime to collapsesending millions of
Tillerson appeared to draw a new redline poor North Korean refugees streaming
in the South China Sea, noting that into China and leaving behind a united
Chinas access to islands there is not Korea ruled by Seoul, armed with North
going to be allowed. Some dismissed Koreas nuclear weapons, and allied with
the statement as overblown rhetoric, Washington. China agreed to another
but Beijing did not. The state-run China un Security Council statement condemn
Daily warned that any attempt to enforce ing North Korea and extended a suspen
such a policy could lead to a devastating sion of coal imports from the country but
confrontation, and the Global Times refused to take further action. Angry
said it could lead to large-scale war. about Trumps incessant criticism and
Then there were the disputes about confrontation over trade, Xi saw the
trade. To head the new White House United States as a greater danger to
National Trade Council, Trump nomi- China than North Korea was and said
nated Peter Navarro, the author of The he refused to be bullied by Washington.
Coming China Wars, Death by China, and At the same time, the U.S. current
other provocative books that describe account deficit with China had swelled,
U.S.-Chinese relations in zero-sum terms driven in part by the growing U.S.
and argue for increased U.S. tariffs and budget deficits that resulted from
trade sanctions. Like Bannon, Navarro Trumps massive tax cuts. That, com-
regularly invoked the specter of military bined with Chinese intransigence over
conflict with Beijing, and he argued that North Korea, convinced the White
tougher economic measures were necessary House that it was time to get tough.
not only to rectify the U.S.-Chinese Outside experts, along with Trumps
trade balance but also to weaken Chinas own secretary of state and secretary of the
military power, which he claimed would treasury, cautioned against the risks of a
inevitably be used against the United dangerous escalation, but the president
States. The early rhetoric worried many dismissed their handwringing and said
observers, but they took solace in the that the days of letting China take
idea that neither side could afford a advantage of Americans were over. In
confrontation. July, the administration formally
It was the decisions that followed branded China a currency manipulator
that made war all but inevitable. In (despite evidence that it had actually
May/June 2017 15
Philip Gordon
been spending its currency reserves to prices only fueled a nationalist reaction
uphold the value of the yuan) and imposed in the United States. Trump tapped into
a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports. it, calling for a new law to block Chinese
To the delight of the crowd at a campaign- investment.
style rally in Florida, Trump announced With personal insults flying back
that these new measures would remain and forth across the Pacific, Trump
in place until China boosted the value announced that if China did not start
of its currency, bought more U.S. goods, treating the United States fairly, Wash
and imposed tougher sanctions on ington might reconsider the one China
North Korea. policy after all. Encouraged by Bannon,
The presidents more hawkish advisers who argued privately that it was better
assured him that Chinas response would to have the inevitable confrontation
prove limited, given its dependence on with China while the United States still
exports and its massive holdings of U.S. enjoyed military superiority, Trump
Treasury bonds. But they underestimated speculated publicly about inviting the
the intense nationalism that the U.S. president of Taiwan to the White House
actions had stoked. Xi had to show and selling new antimissile systems
strength, and he hit back. and submarines to the island.
Within days, Xi announced that China China responded that any change
was taking the United States to the World in U.S. policy toward Taiwan would be
Trade Organization over the import tariff met with an overwhelming response,
(a case he felt certain China would win) which experts interpreted to mean at a
and imposed a 45 percent countertariff minimum cutting off trade with Taiwan
on U.S. imports. The Chinese believed (which sends 30 percent of its exports to
that the reciprocal tariffs would hurt the China) and at a maximum military strikes
United States more than China (since against targets on the island. With over
Americans bought far more Chinese one billion Chinese on the mainland
goods than the other way around) and passionately committed to the countrys
knew that the resulting inflation nominal unity, few doubted that Beijing
especially for goods such as clothing, meant what it said. On October 1, Chinas
shoes, toys, and electronicswould normally tepid National Day celebrations
hurt Trumps blue-collar constituency. turned into a frightening display of
Even more important, they felt they anti-Americanism.
were more willing to make sacrifices It was in this environment that an
than the Americans were. incident in the South China Sea led to
Xi also instructed Chinas central the escalation so many had feared. The
bank to sell $100 billion in U.S. Treasury details remain murky, but it was triggered
bonds, a move that immediately drove when a U.S. surveillance ship operating
up U.S. interest rates and knocked in disputed waters in heavy fog acciden
800 points off the Dow Jones industrial tally rammed a Chinese trawler that was
average in a single day. That China harassing it. In the confusion that ensued,
started using some of the cash resulting a Peoples Liberation Army Navy frigate
from the sales to buy large stakes in fired on the unarmed U.S. ship, a U.S.
major U.S. companies at depressed destroyer sank the Chinese frigate, and
a Chinese torpedo struck and badly Washington had expected some sort
damaged the destroyer, killing three of a North Korean response when it
Americans. preemptively struck the test launch of
A U.S. aircraft carrier task force is an intercontinental ballistic missile
being rushed to the region, and China capable of delivering a nuclear warhead
has deployed additional attack subma to the continental United States, fulfilling
rines there and begun aggressive over Trumps pledge to prevent Pyongyang
flights and patrols throughout the South from acquiring that ability. But few
China Sea. Tillerson is seeking to reach thought North Korea would go so far as
his Chinese counterpart, but officials in to risk its own destruction by attacking
Beijing wonder whether he even speaks South Korea. Now, Trump must decide
for the administration and fear Trump whether to continue with the war and
will accept nothing short of victory. risk nuclear escalationor accept what
Leaked U.S. intelligence estimates will be seen as a humiliating retreat.
suggest that a large-scale conflict could Some of his advisers are urging him to
quickly lead to hundreds of thousands quickly finish the job, whereas others
of casualties, draw in neighboring states, warn that doing so would cost the lives
and destroy trillions of dollars worth of of too many of the 28,000 U.S. soldiers
economic output. But with nationalism stationed on the peninsula, to say nothing
raging in both countries, neither capital of the ten million residents of Seoul.
sees a way to back down. All Trump Assembled in the White House Situation
wanted to do was get a better deal Room, Trump and his aides ponder their
from China. terrible options.
How did it come to this? Even Trumps
THE NEXT KOREAN WAR harshest critics acknowledge that the
It is December 2018, and North Korea United States had no good choices in
has just launched a heavy artillery barrage North Korea. For more than 20 years, the
against targets in Seoul, killing thousands, paranoid, isolated regime in Pyongyang
or perhaps tens of thousands; it is too had developed its nuclear and missile
soon to say. U.S. and South Korean capabilities and seemed impervious to
forcesnow unified under U.S. com incentives and disincentives alike. The
mand, according to the provisions of so-called Agreed Framework, a 1994 deal
the Mutual Defense Treatyhave fired to halt North Koreas nuclear program,
artillery and rockets at North Koreas fell apart in 2003 when Pyongyang was
military positions and launched air caught violating it, leading the George W.
strikes against its advanced air defense Bush administration to abandon the deal
network. From a bunker somewhere near in favor of tougher sanctions. Multi
Pyongyang, the countrys erratic dictator, ple rounds of talks since then pro-
Kim Jong Un, has issued a statement duced little progress. By 2017, experts
promising to burn Seoul and Tokyo estimated that North Korea possessed
to the grounda reference to North more than a dozen nuclear warheads and
Koreas stockpile of nuclear and chemical was stockpiling the material for more.
weaponsif the imperialist forces do They also thought North Korea had
not immediately cease their attacks. missiles capable of delivering those
May/June 2017 17
Philip Gordon
warheads to targets throughout Asia 20 years had failed and that a new
and was testing missiles that could give approach was needed.
it the capacity to strike the West Coast In the ensuing months, critics urged
of the United States by 2023. the administration to accompany its
Early in the administration, numerous military buildup with regional diplo
outside experts and former senior officials macy, but Trump chose otherwise. He
urged Trump to make North Korea a top made clear that U.S. foreign policy had
priority. Accepting that total dismantle changed. Unlike what his predecessor
ment of the countrys nuclear and missile had done with Iran, he said, he was not
programs was not a realistic near-term going to reward bad behavior. Instead,
goal, most called for negotiations that the administration announced in the
would offer a package of economic incen summer of 2018 that North Korea was
tives and security assurances in exchange officially on notice. Although the White
for a halt to further testing and develop House agreed with critics that the best
ment. A critical component, they argued, way to pressure North Korea was through
would be outreach to China, the only China, it proved impossible to cooperate
country that might be able to influence with Beijing while erecting tariffs and
North Korea. attacking it for raping the United
But the administration preferred a States economically.
more confrontational approach. Even Thus did the problem grow during
before Trump took office, when Kim the administrations first two years.
blustered about developing the capacity North Korea continued to test missiles
to strike the United States with a and develop fissile material. It occasion
nuclear weapon, Trump responded on ally incited South Korea, launching
Twitter: It wont happen! On Febru shells across the demilitarized zone and
ary 12, 2017, North Korea fired a test provoking some near misses at sea. The
missile 310 miles into the Sea of Japan war of words between Pyongyang and
at the very moment Trump was meeting Washington also escalatedadvisers
with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo could not get the president to bite his
Abe at his Mar-a-Lago estate, in Florida. tongue in response to Kims outrageous
The next morning, Stephen Miller, a tauntsand Trump repeated in even
senior adviser to Trump, announced more colorful language his Twitter warning
that the United States would soon be that he would not allow Pyongyang to
sending a signal to North Korea in the test a nuclear-capable missile that
form of a major military buildup that could reach the United States.
would show unquestioned military When the intelligence community
strength beyond anything anyone can picked up signs that Pyongyang was
imagine. Later that month, Trump about to do so, the National Security
announced plans for a $54 billion increase Council met, and the chairman of the
in U.S. defense spending for 2018, with Joint Chiefs of Staff briefed the presi-
corresponding cuts in the budget for dent on his options. He could try to
diplomacy. And in March 2017, Tillerson shoot down the test missile in flight,
traveled to Asia and declared that the but shooting carried a high risk of missing,
political and diplomatic efforts of the past and even a successful intercept might
provoke a military response. He could and wishful thinking did lead to a catas
do nothing, but that would mean losing trophe that could have been, and often
face and emboldening North Korea. was, predicted in advance.
Or he could destroy the test missile on Maybe Trump is right that a massive
its launch pad with a barrage of cruise military buildup, a reputation for unpre
missiles, blocking Pyongyangs path to dictability, a high-stakes negotiating
a nuclear deterrent, enforcing his redline, style, and a refusal to compromise will
and sending a clear message to the rest convince other countries to make con
of the world. Sources present at the cessions that will make America safe,
meeting reported that when the president prosperous, and great again. But then
chose the third option, he said, We again, maybe hes wrong.
have to start winning wars again.
LEARNING FROM THE FUTURE

These frightening futures are far from
inevitable. Indeed, for all the early
bluster and promises of a dramatic
break with the past, U.S. foreign
policy may well turn out to be not as
revolutionary or reckless as many fear.
Trump has already demonstrated his
ability to reverse course without com
punction on a multitude of issues,
from abortion to the Iraq war, and
sound advice from some of his more
seasoned advisers could moderate his
potential for rash behavior.
On the other hand, given what we
have seen so far of the presidents
temperament, decision-making style,
and foreign policy, these visions of
what might lie ahead are hardly implau
sible: foreign policy disasters do hap
pen. Imagine if a ghost from the future
could have given world leaders in 1914
a glimpse of the cataclysm their policies
would produce. Or if in 1965, U.S.
President Lyndon Johnson could have
seen what escalation in Vietnam would
lead to a decade later. Or if in 2003,
U.S. President George W. Bush could
have been shown a preview of the
results of the invasion of Iraq. In each
case, unwise decisions, a flawed process,
May/June 2017 19
decades, long before Trump arrived on

Is America the scene. Since the 1980s, deepening
polarization and the radicalization of

Still Safe for the Republican Party have weakened
the institutional foundations that have
Democracy? long safeguarded U.S. democracy
making a Trump presidency consider-
ably more dangerous today than it
Why the United States Is in would have been in previous decades.
Danger of Backsliding Paradoxically, the polarizing dy
namics that now threaten democracy
Robert Mickey, Steven Levitsky, are rooted in the United States belated
and Lucan Ahmad Way democratization. It was only in the early
1970sonce the civil rights movement
and the federal government managed to
T
he election of Donald Trump as stamp out authoritarianism in southern
president of the United Statesa statesthat the country truly became
man who has praised dictators, democratic. Yet this process also helped
encouraged violence among supporters, divide Congress, realigning voters along
threatened to jail his rival, and labeled racial lines and pushing the Republican
the mainstream media as the enemy Party further to the right. The resulting
has raised fears that the United States polarization both facilitated Trumps
may be heading toward authoritarianism. rise and left democratic institutions more
While predictions of a descent into fascism vulnerable to his autocratic behavior.
are overblown, the Trump presidency The safeguards of democracy may
could push the United States into a not come from the quarters one might
mild form of what we call competitive expect. American societys purported
authoritarianisma system in which commitment to democracy is no guar
meaningful democratic institutions exist antee against backsliding; nor are con
yet the government abuses state power stitutional checks and balances, the
to disadvantage its opponents. bureaucracy, or the free press. Ultimately,
But the challenges facing American it may be Trumps ability to mobilize
democracy have been emerging for public supportlimited if his admin
istration performs poorly, but far greater
ROBERT MICKEY is Associate Professor of in the event of a war or a major terrorist
Political Science at the University of Michigan attackthat will determine American
and the author of Paths Out of Dixie: The
Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in
democracys fate.
Americas Deep South, 19441972.
WHAT BACKSLIDING LOOKS LIKE
STEVEN LEVITSKY is Professor of Govern-
ment at Harvard University. If democratic backsliding were to occur
in the United States, it would not take
LUCAN AHMAD WAY is Professor of Political the form of a coup dtat; there would
Science at the University of Toronto and a
co-author, with Levitsky, of Competitive Authori- be no declaration of martial law or impo
tarianism: Hybrid Regimes After the Cold War. sition of single-party rule. Rather, the
Is America Still Safe for Democracy?
experience of most contemporary such as the judiciary, may be politicized

autocracies suggests that it would take in other ways. Judges, for instance, may
place through a series of little-noticed, be bribed, bullied, or blackmailed into
incremental steps, most of which are compliance, or be publicly vilified as
legal and many of which appear innocu incompetent, corrupt, or unpatriotic.
ous. Taken together, however, they In extreme cases, they may be targeted
would tilt the playing field in favor of for impeachment.
the ruling party. Packing state agencies is like buying
The ease and degree to which govern off the referees in a sporting match: not
ments can accomplish this vary. Where only can the home team avoid penalties,
democratic institutions and the rule of but it can also subject its opponent to
law are well entrenched and civic and more of them. For one thing, the govern
opposition forces are robust, as in the ment can shield itself from investi
United States, abuse is both more difficult gations, lawsuits, and criminal charges,
to pull off and less consequential than and it can rest assured that unconstitu
it is in such countries as Russia, Turkey, tional behavior will go unchecked. For
and Venezuela. Nevertheless, such abuse another, it can selectively enforce the
has occurred in the United States in the law, targeting rival politicians, businesses,
recent past, and so it cannot be ruled out. and media outlets while leaving allies (or
The first type of abuse entails politi those who remain quiet) alone. Vladimir
cizing state institutions and deploying Putin, for example, eliminated most of
them against the opposition. Modern his opponents after becoming president
states possess a variety of bodies that of Russia by prosecuting them for cor
can investigate and punish wrongdoing ruption while ignoring similar behavior
by public officials or private citizens by his allies.
the courts; public prosecutors; legis A politicized police force, mean
lative oversight committees; and law while, can be relied on to crack down
enforcement, intelligence, tax, and on opposition protesters while tolerating
regulatory agencies. Because these violence by pro-government thugs
organs are designed to serve as neutral a tactic that has proved effective in
arbiters, they present both a challenge Venezuela. Politicized intelligence
and an opportunity for would-be author agencies, for their part, can be used
itarians. To the extent that investigative to spy on critics and dig up blackmail
agencies remain independent, they may material. Malaysias top opposition
expose and even punish government leader, Anwar Ibrahim, was sidelined
abuse. If controlled by loyalists, however, in this way: after a dubious police investi
they can cover up official malfeasance gation, he was convicted of sodomy in
and serve as potent weapons against the 1999 and imprisoned. To be sure, even
governments opponents. bureaucracies in democratic countries
Elected autocrats thus have a power are susceptible to politicization, but it
ful incentive to purge career civil servants is usually limited and punished when
and other independent-minded officials egregious. In competitive authoritarian
and replace them with partisans. regimes, by contrast, it is systematic
Agencies that cannot be easily purged, and consequential.
May/June 2017 21
The second way elected autocrats Finally, elected autocrats often

may tilt the playing field is by neutral rewrite the rules of the political game
izing key parts of civil society. Few reforming the constitution, the electoral
contemporary autocracies seek to system, or other institutionsto make
eliminate opposition outright. Rather, it harder for their rivals to compete. Such
they attempt to co-opt, silence, or reforms are often justified on the grounds
hobble groups that can mobilize it: of combating corruption, cleaning up
media outlets, business leaders, labor elections, or strengthening democracy,
unions, religious associations, and so but their true aim is more sinister. In
on. The easiest route is co-optation. Ecuador, for example, an electoral reform
Thus, most authoritarian governments pushed through by the government of
offer perks or outright bribes to major President Rafael Correa in 2012 heavily
media, business, and religious figures. restricted private campaign contribu-
Friendly press outlets get privileged tions, ostensibly to reduce the corrupting
access; favored business leaders receive influence of money in politics. But in
profitable resource concessions or reality, the reform benefited Correas
government contracts. To handle those governing party, whose unregulated
who resist, autocrats turn to the politi access to government resources gave
cized authorities. Newspapers, television it a massive advantage.
networks, and websites that denounce In both Malaysia and Zimbabwe,
government wrongdoing face libel or the government has invoked the goal
defamation suits or are prosecuted for of decentralization to justify reforms
publishing material that supposedly that increased the electoral weight of
promotes violence or threatens national sparsely populated rural areas at the
security. Business leaders critical of the expense of urban centers, where the
government are investigated for tax opposition was strongest. Such institu
fraud or other infractions, and opposi tional reforms are particularly danger
tion politicians get mired in scandals ous because they maintain a veneer of
dug up or simply invented by intel legitimacy. Nevertheless, they system
ligence agencies. atically bias electoral outcomes and, in
Sustained harassment of this type many cases, allow incumbents to lock
can seriously weaken the opposition. in advantages created by their initial
The press may remain nominally inde abuse of power.
pendent but quietly censor itself, as in
Turkey and Venezuela. Businesspeople A YOUNG DEMOCRACY
may withdraw from politics rather It may be tempting to assume that the
than risk running afoul of tax or regu United States centuries-old democracy
latory agencies, as in Russia. Over is impervious to democratic erosion,
time, critical media coverage dimin but such confidence is misplaced. In
ishes, and with leading businesses fact, liberal democracywith full adult
and labor unions cowed into political suffrage and broad protection of civil
inactivity, opposition parties find it and political libertiesis a relatively
harder to fundraise, leaving them at a recent development in the United States.
significant disadvantage. By contemporary standards, the
It happened there: Nicols Maduro in Caracas, Venezuela, July 2015

country became fully democratic only efforts. In 1944, however, the U.S.
in the 1970s. Supreme Court struck down the regions
Beginning in the 1890s, after the white-only Democratic primaries. Begin
Civil War and the failure of Recon- ning with that decision, black activists
struction, Democratic politicians in compelled and capitalized on federal
each of the 11 states of the old Confed- judicial rulings, congressional legislation,
eracy built single-party, authoritarian and national-party reforms to dismantle
enclaves. Having wrested some room disenfranchisement, segregation, and
to maneuver from the Supreme Court, state repression. By the early 1970s, the
the executive branch, and their national southern authoritarians had been defeated;
party, conservative Democrats disen today, some 6,000 black elected officials
franchised blacks and many poorer white serve southern constituencies.
voters, repressed opposition parties, But American authoritarianism has
and imposed racially separateand not been just a southern phenomenon.
significantly unfreecivic spheres. From the time the fbi, the cia, and the
Their goal was to ensure cheap agri National Security Agency were created,
cultural labor and white supremacy, presidents used them to monitor White
JO RG E LO PEZ / REUTE RS
and they used state-sponsored violence House staff, journalists, political oppo-
to achieve it. nents, and activists. Between 1956 and
For half a century, southern states 1971, the fbi launched more than 2,000
capitalized on their influence in Congress operations to discredit and disrupt black
and the national Democratic Party to protest organizations, antiwar groups,
shield themselves from outside reform and other perceived threats. It even
May/June 2017 23
provided Dwight Eisenhower with extremists, and even tolerate or encourage

derogatory information about Adlai violence in order to keep their rivals out
Stevenson, his Democratic rival in of power. Few democracies can survive
the 1952 election. Likewise, the Nixon for long under such conditions.
administration deployed the U.S. Attorney Until recently, the United States
Generals Office and other agencies seemed immune from such threats.
against its enemies in the Democratic Indeed, traditions of restraint and coop
Party and the media. And congressional eration helped the United States avoid
investigations into alleged subversion the kinds of partisan fights to the death
further threatened civil rights and liberties. that destroyed democracies in Germany
Like southern authoritarianism, the and Spain in the 1930s and Chile in
abuse of federal intelligence and law the 1970s. In the United States, leading
enforcement agencies largely ended in Democrats opposed President Franklin
the 1970s, in this case after the post- Roosevelts efforts to pack the Supreme
Watergate reforms. Court, and Republicans backed the
American democracy remains far investigation and impeachment of
from ideal. Ex-felons, who are dispro- President Richard Nixon. The party
portionately black, are often prohibited controlling the White House never used
from voting; many states are experimen the full extent of governmental powers
ting with an array of new voting restric against the other side. In fact, the sys
tions; and the concentration of campaign tematic underutilization of power by
donations among the wealthy raises presidents and congressional majorities
serious concerns about how representative has long served as a vital source of
U.S. democracy truly is. Still, the United democratic stability in the United States.
States has been a bona fide multiracial But with the passage of the Civil
democracy for almost half a century. Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in
Yet just as the United States fulfilled the 1960s, the Democratic Party (long the
its democratic promise, the foundations guarantor of white supremacy) and the
of the system began to weaken. Ironi Republican Party (the party of Lincoln)
cally, the very process of democratiza realigned national politics along racial
tion in the South generated the intense lines. Southern blacks entered the
polarization that now threatens Amer electorate as Democrats, and southern
ican democracy. whites became increasingly Republican.
Many white southerners voted Republican
THE GREAT DIVIDE for class reasons: the regions incomes
Scholars have long identified political were rising, thus enhancing the appeal
polarization as a central factor behind of the gops economic policies. But
democratic breakdown. Extreme polari many chose the Republicans for their
zation leads politicians and their sup conservative stances on racial issues
porters to view their rivals as illegitimate and their appeals to law and order.
and, in some cases, as an existential threat. This realignment helped change the
Often, democratic norms weaken as composition of Congress. In the ensuing
politicians become willing to break the decades, the South transformed from a
rules, cooperate with antidemocratic one-party, Democratic region into a
2017-May-June-Rich-Democracy-Vtl_Foreign Affairs 3/21/17 10:56 AM Pag
Republican-dominated one. Whereas

it once sent moderate Democrats to
Congress, today it elects either black or
Hispanic liberal Democrats or, much An extremely eloquently,
more commonly, very conservative white extraordinarily well written,
Republicans. The ideological polarization and impressively informed
of Congress has other sources, to be sure,
but the democratization of the South piece of work. . . .
represents a critical one. The result
has been two much more ideologically
homogeneousand disciplinedparties.
Gone are crosscutting issues that temper
partisan conflict, along with moderate
members within each party critical for
crafting legislative deals.
The triumph of democracy in the
South not only polarized Congress
ideologically; it also polarized voters
along party lines. Starting in the late
1960s, Democratic and Republican
candidates began staking out increas-
ingly distinctive views on public policy,
first on racial matters (such as affirma-
tive action) and then on a wider range
of issues. As the political scientist Michael
Tesler has argued, racially coded campaign
appeals encourage voters to evaluate Rich provides a highly readable
government programs in terms of the and accessible run-through of all
social groups they imagine as benefiting the main challenges with which
from them. Over time, white voters democracy is currently beset.
racial attitudes have increasingly shaped
RICHARD YOUNGS,
their views about public policy, even on Carnegie Europe
issues that seem unrelated to race, such
as health care, Social Security, and taxes.
Taking their cues from party leaders,
voters are increasingly sorted into the
A sserting that authoritarianism
is resurgent and democracy in
retreat, Rich interprets the danger
ideologically correct party: few center- signs that abound around the world
left Republican or center-right Democratic and offers innovative strategies for
voters remain. And a greater share of turning the tide. hc $32.50
black voters back Democratic candidates
than ever before, while a greater share
of white voters support Republicans.
Although just a small percentage of T EL : 303-444-6684 www.r ienner.com
the American electorate is highly
25
ideological (unlike their representatives income inequality has reached its highest
in Congress), voters now exhibit height- level since the onset of the Great
ened animosity toward politicians and Depression. The explosive growth of
voters of the other partywhat the incomes at the top has increased support
political scientists Alan Abramowitz among wealthy voters and campaign
and Steven Webster have termed contributors for conservative economic
negative partisanship. policies, especially on taxes, and has
Partisan polarization has been rein moved Republican legislators to the
forced by the weakening of the estab right. The stagnation of working-class
lishment news media, a critical component wages over the past three decades, more
of democratic accountability. Until the over, has triggered a right-wing populist
1990s, most Americans got their news reaction with racial overtones, especially
from a handful of trusted television among rural whites, who have directed
networks. Politicians themselves relied their anger at liberal spending pro
heavily on the press to get the publics grams that they view as benefiting
attention, and so they could ill afford urban minorities.
to alienate journalists. But over the last The growing political differences
20 years, the media have become increas over identity extend beyond the tradi
ingly polarized. The rise of Fox News tional black-white binary. Since the
kicked off the era of partisan news 1970s, increased immigration has added
channels. The Internet, meanwhile, has more Hispanic and Asian Americans
made it easier for people to seek out to the electorate, largely as Democrats,
news that confirms their existing beliefs further solidifying the partisan gap
and has played a role in the widespread between whites and nonwhites. These
closure of local and regional newspapers. trends have exacerbated anxieties
Today, Democrats and Republicans among many white voters about losing
consume news from starkly different their numerical, cultural, and political
sources, and the traditional medias influ preeminencejust as white southerners
ence has declined precipitously. As a feared before democratization. In many
result, voters have grown more receptive respects, then, the Souths racial politics
to fake news and more trusting of party have gone national.
spokespeople. When events are filtered
through fragmented and polarized media, THE PERILS OF POLARIZATION
Americans view nearly all political events Partisan polarization poses several
through purely partisan lenses. Consider threats to U.S. democracy. First, it
what happened after Trump, breaking with leads to gridlock, especially when dif
traditional Republican policy, embraced ferent parties control the legislative
Putin: one poll found that Putins favor and executive branches. As polarization
ability rating among Republicans increases, Congress passes fewer and
increased, from ten percent in July 2014 fewer laws and leaves important issues
to 37 percent in December 2016. unresolved. Such dysfunction has eroded
The growing gap between the richest public trust in political institutions, and
Americans and the rest of the country along partisan lines. Voters backing the
has also accentuated polarization. U.S. party that does not currently occupy
the White House have astonishingly Even more dangerous, the Republican
little trust in the government: in a Party has radicalized to the point of
2010 poll conducted by the political becoming, in the words of the scholars
scientists Marc Hetherington and Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein,
Thomas Rudolph, a majority of Repub dismissive of the legitimacy of its
lican voters surveyed said they never political opposition. Over the last two
trust the federal government. decades, many Republican elected offi
Gridlock, in turn, encourages cials, activists, and media personalities
presidents to pursue unilateral action have begun to treat their Democratic
on the edges of constitutional limits. rivals as an existential threatto
When there is divided government, national security or their way of life
with the party out of power determined and have ceased to recognize them as
to block the presidents legislative agenda, legitimate. Trump himself rose to
frustrated presidents work around political prominence by questioning
Congress. They expand their power President Barack Obamas citizenship.
through executive orders and other During the 2016 campaign, he repeat-
unilateral measures, and they centralize edly referred to his opponent, Hillary
their control of the federal bureaucracy. Clinton, as a criminal, and Republican
At the same time, polarization makes it leaders led chants of lock her up at
harder for Congress to exercise oversight their partys national convention.
of the White House, since members Parties that view their rivals as
have a hard time forging a collective, illegitimate are more likely to resort
bipartisan response to executive overreach. to extreme measures to weaken them.
When the same party controls both Indeed, the Republican Party has increas
Congress and the White House, legisla ingly abandoned established norms of
tors have little incentive to exercise tough restraint and cooperationkey pillars
oversight of the president. Today, then, of U.S. political stabilityin favor of
polarization reduces the chance that tactics that, while legal, violate demo
congressional Republicans will constrain cratic traditions and raise the stakes of
Trump. Although many party elites would political conflict. House Republicans
prefer a more predictable Republican in impeachment of President Bill Clinton
the White House, Trumps strong support in 1998 represented an early instance.
among the partys voters means that any Senate Republicans refusal to hold
serious opposition would probably split confirmation hearings for Obamas
the party and encourage primary chal Supreme Court nominee in 2016
lenges, as well as endanger the partys marked another.
ambitious conservative agenda. Con At the state level, Republicans have
gressional Republicans are thus unlikely gone even further, passing laws aimed
to follow in the footsteps of their prede at disadvantaging their rivals. The most
cessors who reined in Nixon. Indeed, so blatant example comes from North
far, they have refused to seriously investi Carolina, where in late 2016, the lame-
gate Trumps conflicts of interest or duck Republican legislature passed a
accusations of collusion between his series of last-minute laws stripping
campaign and the Russian government. powers from the newly elected
May/June 2017 27
Democratic governor. Meanwhile, democracy to serve as a safeguard. Until

Republicans in more than a dozen states the 1960s, most Americans tolerated
have introduced legislation to criminalize serious restrictions on democracy in
certain kinds of protests. Even more the South. Nor should one expect the
disturbing are new restrictions on voting Constitution on its own to impede
rights, which have been justified as backsliding. As the constitutional
efforts to combat massive voter fraud, scholars Tom Ginsburg and Aziz Huq
a problem that simply does not exist. have argued, the ambiguities of the
These laws have been concentrated in U.S. Constitution leave considerable
states where Republicans have recently room for executive abuse on various
taken control of the legislature but hold frontsincluding the ability to pack
only a slim majority, suggesting that government agencies with loyalists and
their true purpose is to lower the turnout appoint or dismiss U.S. attorneys for
of voters likely to back Democratic political reasons. In the absence of infor
candidates, such as nonwhites. Trump, mal norms of restraint and cooperation,
for his part, has given such initiatives a even the best-designed constitution
boost. Not only has he falsely claimed cannot fully shield democracy.
that the 2016 election was marred by The press is also unlikely to prevent
massive illegal voting, undermining backsliding. The mainstream media will
public trust in the electoral process, continue to investigate and denounce
but his Department of Justice also looks wrongdoing in the Trump administra
poised to begin defending states facing tion. But in the current media environ
lawsuits over their suffrage restrictions. ment, even revelations of serious abuse
Trump has thus ascended to the will likely be eagerly consumed by
presidency at an especially perilous time Democrats and dismissed as partisan
for American democracy. His party, attacks by Trump supporters.
which controls both houses of Congress Those pinning their hopes on push
and 33 governorships, has increasingly back from the bureaucracy are also
turned to hardball tactics aimed at weak likely to be disappointed. The United
ening the opposition. As president, States lacks the kind of powerful career
Trump himself has continued to violate civil service found in European democ-
democratic normsattacking judges, racies, and Republicans control of both
the media, and the legitimacy of the the White House and Congress limits
electoral process. Were his administra gop legislators incentive to monitor
tion to engage in outright authoritarian the presidents treatment of federal
behavior, polarization has reduced the agencies. Those staffing the agencies,
prospects that Congress would mobilize meanwhile, may prove too intimidated
a bipartisan resistance or that the public to resist abuse by the White House.
would turn against him en masse. Moreover, Congress controls the agen
cies budgets, and in January, House
THE FATE OF DEMOCRACY Republicans revived the Holman Rule,
What could halt the United States an arcane 1876 provision that allows
democratic erosion? There is little reason Congress to reduce any bureaucrats
to expect Americans commitment to salary to $1.
The United States federal system of struck down his initial travel ban of
government and independent judiciary putting the country in peril and
should provide more robust defenses describing the mainstream media as
against backsliding. Although the extreme enemies. In the event of an attack
decentralization of U.S. elections makes comparable in scale to those of 9/11,
them uneven in quality, it also hampers any efforts to crack down on the media,
any effort at coordinated electoral manip dissent, or ethnic and religious minor
ulation. And although U.S. courts have ities would face far fewer obstacles.
often failed to defend individual rights The Trump presidency has punctured
in the past (as when they permitted the many Americans beliefs about their
internment of Japanese Americans during countrys exceptionalism. U.S. democ
World War II), federal judges since racy is not immune to backsliding. In
the 1960s have generally strengthened fact, it now faces a challenge that extends
civil rights and civil liberties. Still, well beyond Trump: sustaining the
even U.S. courts are not immune to multiracial democracy that was born
political pressures from other branches half a century ago. Few democracies
of government. have survived transitions in which
Ultimately, the fate of American historically dominant ethnic groups
democracy under Trump may hinge on lose their majority status. If American
contingent events. The greatest brake democracy manages to do that, it will
on backsliding today is presidential prove exceptional indeed.
unpopularity. Republican politicians
troubled by Trumps behavior but
worried about winning their partys
nomination will have an easier time
opposing the president if his support
among Republican voters weakens.
Declining support may also embolden
federal judges to push back against
executive aggrandizements more aggres
sively. Thus, factors that undermine
Trumps popularity, such as an economic
crisis or a Katrina momenta high-
profile disaster for which the government
is widely viewed as responsiblemay
check his power.
But events could also have the
opposite effect. If a war or a terrorist
attack occurs, the commitment to civil
liberties on the part of both politicians
and the public will likely weaken. Already,
Trump has framed the independent
judiciary and the independent press as
security threats, accusing the judge who
May/June 2017 29
It is too early to pass definitive judg

The Case for ment on the Trump administration. But
its rapid improvement, combined with

Trumps Foreign Trumps own willingness to take bold
action, suggests that former Secretary
Policy of State Henry Kissinger may have been
right when he told cbs News last Decem
ber that Trumps presidency could
The Right People, the Right present an extraordinary opportunity
Positions for U.S. foreign policy.
Matthew Kroenig TRUMPS INHERITANCE

To gauge the success of a presidents
M
edia coverage of U.S. Presi foreign policy, it helps to examine the
dent Donald Trumps foreign record of his immediate predecessor.
policy has been overwhelm Here, the Trump administration has a
ingly negative. Analysts have seized on low bar to clear. In Europe, Asia, and
early policy missteps, a supposed slow the Middle East, Obama left behind a
ness in staffing the national security far more dangerous world than the one
bureaucracy, and controversial statements he inherited in 2009.
and actions as evidence that Trumps For the first time since World War II,
foreign policy is already failing. Russia is redrawing the map of Europe
But the critics have gotten a lot wrong at gunpoint. Meeting only a weak
and failed to give credit where credit is response from the West, Russian
due. The Trump administration has left President Vladimir Putin continues to
behind the rhetoric of the campaign trail threaten and undermine the United
and has begun to adopt foreign policies States and its nato allies in a bid to
that are, for the most part, well suited to break the alliance.
the challenges ahead. Trump inherited a In Asia, the picture is little better.
crumbling international order from China has seized contested territory
President Barack Obama, but he has from U.S. allies and is undertaking a
assembled a highly capable national secu- massive military buildup that the
rity team to help him update and revital- countrys leaders hope will eventually
ize it. Many of the controversial foreign render the United States unable to
policy statements that Trump has made keep its security commitments in the
as president have, in fact, been consistent Asia-Pacific. The Obama administra-
with established U.S. policy. Where he tions policy of strategic patience
has broken with tradition, it has often with North Korea was a euphemism
been to embrace much-needed change. for standing idly by as threats gath-
ered. According to expert estimates,
MATTHEW KROENIG is Associate Professor of Pyongyang now has up to 21 warheads
Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown and is on track to have nuclear mis-
University and a Senior Fellow at the Brent
Scowcroft Center on International Security at the siles that could hit the continental
Atlantic Council. Follow him on Twitter @kroenig. United States.
The Case for Trumps Foreign Policy
At your service: H. R. McMaster with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, February 2017

The worst of the Obama administra out what to do when the limits on Irans
tions failures took place in the Middle nuclear program begin to expire in less
East. The United States oversaw the than a decade.
wholesale disintegration of the region In every region of the world impor
and the rise of the Islamic State (also tant to the United States, the last eight
known as isis). Iraq, Libya, Syria, and years have left emboldened enemies,
Yemen have failed or are failing as states, nervous allies, and increasing disorder.
turning them into incubators of terrorism. Obama may have inherited two difficult
Isis is metastasizing and inspiring attacks counterinsurgency campaigns, but he
around the world, including in the United bequeathed to his successor an entire
States. Unwilling to upset nuclear negoti world in disarray. Indeed, the current
ations with Iran, Obama failed to counter international environment may be the
Tehrans advancing missile program worst that any incoming president has
and its support for terrorist groups. Today, faced since the height of the Cold War.
Iran is testing long-range ballistic missiles The good news is that this low starting
KEVIN LAMARQU E / REUT E RS
and projecting its influence throughout point may allow Trump to dramatically
the Middle East, worsening the security improve the United States position.
of the United States and its partners.
Moreover, although the nuclear deal THE A-TEAM
delayed the Iranian nuclear program, A president cannot foresee all the
it created a serious problem for future foreign policy crises he will face, but
U.S. presidents, who will have to figure he can choose the people he will have
May/June 2017 31
Matthew Kroenig
at his side when those crises erupt. As BETTER THAN IT LOOKS

Trump promised during the campaign, Like any new administration, the Trump
he has assembled a team of the best team has made mistakes. It designed and
and brightest the country has to offer. rolled out the initial travel ban poorly,
Secretary of Defense James Mattis an unforced error given the popular
and National Security Adviser H. R. support for stronger border security
McMaster rank among the most influ- and immigration reform. More broadly,
ential military officers of their genera- the team has struggled to stay on mes
tion. Both are not only extraordinary sage. But taking a step back reveals that
leaders but also intellectuals capable of Trump has gotten much of the big picture
farsighted strategic thinking. Secretary right. The world is changing rapidly, and
of State Rex Tillerson served as the the United States must adapt if it is to
ceo of ExxonMobil for over a decade, succeed. Trumps comfort with disruptive
running a corporation with revenue larger change may make him particularly well
than the gdps of many small nations placed to oversee a creative reinvigora-
and overseeing operations in more than tion of U.S. foreign policy.
40 countries. Rounding out the national Some have charged that Trumps
security cabinet, Vice President Mike America first approach signals the end
Pence, un Ambassador Nikki Haley, of international U.S. leadership. It doesnt.
Director of National Intelligence Dan If the United States is not strong at home,
Coates, and cia Director Mike Pompeo it cannot be strong abroad. Trumps calls
are all experienced and accomplished for tax cuts, deregulation, and major
politicians. Some have raised concerns infrastructure investments have already
about the placement of Steve Bannon, boosted domestic economic confidence.
the White House chief strategist, on the From last years election to the beginning
National Security Councils Principals of March, U.S. stocks added nearly
Committee. But Obama also regularly $3 trillion to their value. Under Trump,
invited political advisers to nsc meetings, the United States may finally break out
and as in the past, the discussions will of its recent cycle of low productivity,
likely center not on politics but on the low inflation, and low growth.
views of national security officials. To maintain its international
Critics have also slammed Trump for position, the United States will need a
filling subcabinet positions too slowly, strong military. Trump has promised
but this charge is ill informed; George W. one of the greatest military buildups in
Bushs undersecretary of defense for policy, history. His first budget proposal includes
for example, did not take office until six a $54 billion down payment on this
months after Bushs inauguration. More promise, and, working with Republican
over, those who have been named, such majorities in Congress, the administration
as Brian Hook, appointed as the State will likely improve on this opening bid.
Departments director of policy planning, The Department of Defense will finally
and Jon Huntsman, a former governor get the funds Obama denied it.
of Utah and Trumps nominee for ambas Trump recognized that the U.S.
sador to Russia, are experienced and military must modernize to face a new
highly respected public servants. nuclear age when he promised in an
The Case for Trumps Foreign Policy
interview with Reuters in February that Times in March of last year. But alliance
the United States would be at the top of officials in Brussels are the first to agree
the pack in nuclear capabilities. Critics that nato must continue to adapt to meet
have called this goal reckless, but the twenty-first-century threats.
United States must have a robust nuclear It is true that Trump has shown an
force to protect its allies in Europe and unusually intense interest in greater
Asia. Moreover, past U.S. presidents cooperation with Russia, but the general
have expressed similar ambitions. John F. inclination is not unreasonable. Both
Kennedy, for example, avowed in 1963 Bush and Obama sought closer relations
that it was essential that the United States with Putin, and there is no doubt that
in this area of national strength and more cooperation could further U.S.
national vigor should be second to none. interests. Yet the blame for the recent
Since Trumps inauguration, his downturn in relations falls squarely on
administration has also shown strong Putins shoulders. And Trump has dem
support for U.S. allies. Mattis made onstrated that he will be no pushover,
Seoul and Tokyo the first overseas stops promising to support nato and strengthen
by a Trump cabinet official, and Trump the United States nuclear deterrent.
further solidified his commitment to He has also appointed Putin critics to
Asia by hosting Japanese Prime Minis every major national security post,
ter Shinzo Abe for an intimate weekend including the Brookings scholar Fiona
gathering at his Mar-a-Lago estate, in Hill as the senior director for Europe
Florida. As president-elect, Trump called and Russia at the nsc.
nato obsolete, but since taking office, In the Middle East, in a welcome
he has repeatedly voiced his support for reversal from the Obama years, U.S.
the alliance, a message that Pence and partners such as Israel and the Gulf
Mattis relayed in person at the Munich states are hopeful, while the United
Security Conference in February. Some States long-standing enemy Iran is
have criticized Trump for suggesting wary. Critics scoff at Trumps promise
that nato members should increase their to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal,
defense spending, but U.S. adminis but the deal will have to be renegotiated
trations from Dwight Eisenhowers to at some point to address its sunset clauses,
Obamas have made this same request. because after they expire, Iran will have
The only difference is that Trumps a rapid path to a nuclear weapon. To
approach is working. As Germanys pressure Iran into returning to the table,
defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, Trump has signaled that he will enforce
said at the Munich Security Conference, the strict terms of the nuclear accord
Our traditional reflex of relying above while turning up the heat on Iran in all
all on our American friends vigor and the ways not covered by the deal. These
ducking away when things really get should include countering Irans malign
tight . . . will no longer be enough. . . . influence in the region by, for example,
We must also carry our share of the intercepting more of Irans arms ship
burden. Others disparage Trump for ments to the Houthi rebels in Yemen
saying that nato should be updated to and imposing new sanctions in response
include terror, as he told The New York to its ballistic missile tests, support for
May/June 2017 33
Matthew Kroenig
terrorist groups, and human rights created an opening for China, Trumps
violations. Finally, Trump has already promise to renegotiate old trade deals
begun to follow through on his promise and strike new ones could pave the way
to wage a more aggressive campaign to a global trade regime that advances
against isis, following years of bipartisan U.S. political and economic interests
calls to increase the tempo of operations simultaneously.
against the group. On almost every front, Trump has
In Asia, the Trump administration begun to correct the failures of the past
has launched a review of U.S. policy eight years and position the United
toward North Korea that will leave no States well for the challenges to come.
options off the table. Trump has also With the current team and policies in
accepted the long-standing and success place, and with greater adherence to a
ful one China policy, under which core strategy going forward, Trump
Washington officially recognizes only may well, as Kissinger predicted was
the government in Beijing but has an possible, go down in history as a very
unofficial relationship with Taiwan. The considerable president.
administration also seems committed to
strengthening the alliances necessary
to counter Chinese aggression and has
vowed to stand up to Chinas mercan
tilist policies.
The United States benefits from free
trade, as Trump has repeatedly acknowl
edged. In February, for example, he told
Congress, I believe strongly in free trade,
but it also has to be fair trade. Indeed,
Washington cannot stand by as China
and other trading partners game the
system. Whats more, long-standing
trade pacts, such as the North American
Free Trade Agreement, lack provisions,
such as standards for Internet commerce,
contained in modern accords. Updating
them would improve protections for
millions of American workers. U.S.
business leaders from sectors as diverse
as traditional manufacturing and high-
end services, such as finance and shipping,
complained that in negotiating the
Trans-Pacific Partnership, Obama sold
out U.S. business interests to increase
U.S. political influence in the Asia-
Pacific. Although the administrations
withdrawal from the agreement has
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ESSAYS
We did not pay enough attention as
capitalism hijacked globalization.
Jeff Colgan and Robert Keohane
The Liberal Order Is Rigged Irans Next Supreme Leader

Jeff D. Colgan and Robert O. Keohane 36 Sanam Vakil and Hossein Rassam 76
The False Promise of Protectionism Brazils Never-Ending

Douglas A. Irwin 45 Corruption Crisis
BRIAN SNYD E R / REUTE RS
Brian Winter 87
Intelligence and the Presidency
Jami Miscik 57 How to Maintain Americas Edge
L. Rafael Reif 95
Getting Tough on North Korea
Joshua Stanton, Sung-Yoon Lee, and The Boom Was a Blip
Bruce Klingner 65 Ruchir Sharma 104
The Liberal Order

Is Rigged
Fix It Now or Watch It Wither
P
rior to 2016, debates about the global order mostly revolved
around its structure and the question of whether the United
States should actively lead it or should retrench, pulling back
from its alliances and other commitments. But during the past year
or two, it became clear that those debates had missed a key point:
todays crucial foreign policy challenges arise less from problems be-
tween countries than from domestic politics within them. That is
one lesson of the sudden and surprising return of populism to Western
countries, a trend that found its most powerful expression last year
in the United Kingdoms decision to leave the eu, or Brexit, and the
election of Donald Trump as U.S. president.
It can be hard to pin down the meaning of populism, but its cru-
cial identifying mark is the belief that each country has an authentic
people who are held back by the collusion of foreign forces and
self-serving elites at home. A populist leader claims to represent the
people and seeks to weaken or destroy institutions such as legisla-
tures, judiciaries, and the press and to cast off external restraints in
defense of national sovereignty. Populism comes in a range of ideo-
logical flavors. Left-wing populists want to soak the rich in the name
of equality; right-wing populists want to remove constraints on wealth
in the name of growth. Populism is therefore defined not by a particular
view of economic distribution but by a faith in strong leaders and a
dislike of limits on sovereignty and of powerful institutions.
JEFF D. COLGAN is Richard Holbrooke Associate Professor of Political Science and

International Affairs at Brown University. Follow him on Twitter @JeffDColgan.
ROBERT O. KEOHANE is Professor of International Affairs at Princeton University.
The Liberal Order Is Rigged
Such institutions are, of course, key features of the liberal order:

think of the un, the eu, the World Trade Organization (wto), and
major alliances such as nato. Through them, the Washington-led
order encourages multilateral cooperation on issues ranging from se-
curity to trade to climate change. Since 1945, the order has helped
preserve peace among the great powers. In addition to the orders
other accomplishments, the stability it provides has discouraged
countries such as Germany, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea
from acquiring nuclear weapons.
This peace-building aspect of the liberal order has been an ex-
traordinary success. So, too, is the way in which the order has al-
lowed the developing world to advance, with billions of people rising
out of crippling poverty and new middle classes burgeoning all over the
world. But for all of the orders success, its institutions have become
disconnected from publics in the very countries that created them.
Since the early 1980s, the effects of a neoliberal economic agenda have
eroded the social contract that had previously ensured crucial political
support for the order. Many middle- and working-class voters in the
United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere have come to be-
lievewith a good deal of justificationthat the system is rigged.
Those of us who have not only analyzed globalization and the liberal
order but also celebrated them share some responsibility for the rise
of populism. We did not pay enough attention as capitalism hijacked
globalization. Economic elites designed international institutions to
serve their own interests and to create firmer links between themselves
and governments. Ordinary people were left out. The time has come
to acknowledge this reality and push for policies that can save the
liberal order before it is too late.
THE BOATS THAT DIDNT RISE

In 2016, the two states that had done the most to construct the liberal
orderthe United Kingdom and the United Statesseemed to turn
their backs on it. In the former, the successful Brexit campaign focused
on restoring British sovereignty; in the latter, the Trump campaign
was explicitly nationalist in tone and content. Not surprisingly, this
has prompted strong reactions in places that continue to value the
liberal order, such as Germany: a poll published in February by the
German newspaper Die Welt found that only 22 percent of Germans
believe that the United States is a trustworthy ally, down from 59 percent
May/June 2017 37
just three months earlier, prior to Trumps victorya whopping

37-point decrease.
The Brexit and Trump phenomena reflect a breakdown in the social
contract at the core of liberal democracy: those who do well in a market-
based society promise to make sure that those disadvantaged by
market forces do not fall too far behind. But fall behind they have.
Between 1974 and 2015, the real median
household income for Americans with-
The Brexit and Trump out high school diplomas fell by almost
phenomena reflect a 20 percent. And even those with high
breakdown in the social school diplomas, but without any college
contract at the core of education, saw their real median house-
hold income plummet by 24 percent.
liberal democracy. On the other hand, those with college
degrees saw their incomes and wealth
expand. Among those Americans, the real median household income
rose by 17 percent; those with graduate degrees did even better.
As political scientists such as Robert Putnam and Margaret Weir
have documented, such trends have led to different sets of Americans
living in separate worlds. The well-off do not live near the poor or
interact with them in public institutions as much as they used to.
This self-segregation has sapped a sense of solidarity from American
civic life: even as communications technology has connected people
as never before, different social classes have drifted further apart,
becoming almost alien to one another. And since cosmopolitan
elites were doing so well, many came to the conclusionoften without
realizing itthat solidarity just wasnt that important for a well-
functioning democracy.
Elites have taken advantage of the global liberal ordersometimes
inadvertently, sometimes intentionallyto capture most of the income
and wealth gains in recent decades, and they have not shared much with
the middle and lower classes. Wealthier, better-educated Americans
have pushed for or accepted regressive tax policies, trade and investment
agreements that encouraged corporate outsourcing, and the under-
funding of public and higher education. The result of such policies
has been to undermine what the political scientist John Ruggie once
called embedded liberalism: a global order made up of free-market
societies that nevertheless preserved welfare states and labor-market
policies that allowed for the retraining of people whose skills became
obsolete, compensation for those who lost out from trade liberalization,
and validation of the self-worth of all citizens, even if they were not
highly productive in economic terms. Elites pushed for and supported
the first part of this visionfree markets, open borders, and multi-
lateralismbut in the 1970s and even more so in the 1980s, they began
to neglect the other part of the bargain: a robust safety net for those
who struggled. That imbalance undermined domestic support for free
trade, military alliances, and much else.
The bill for that broken social contract came due in 2016 on both
sides of the Atlantic. And yet even now, many observers downplay
the threat this political shift poses to the liberal order. Some argue
that the economic benefits of global integration are so overwhelming
that national governments will find their way back to liberalism, regard-
less of campaign rhetoric and populist posturing. But the fact is that
politicians respond to electoral incentives even when those incentives
diverge considerably from their countrys long-term interestsand
in recent years, many voters have joined in the populist rejection of
globalization and the liberal order.
Moreover, business leaders and stock markets, which might have
been expected to serve as a brake on populist fervor, have instead
mostly rewarded proposals for lower taxes with no accompanying
reduction in government spending. This is shortsighted. Grabbing
even more of the benefits of globalization at the expense of the middle
and working classes might further undermine political support for the
integrated supply chains and immigration on which the U.S. economy
depends. This position is reminiscent of the way that eighteenth-
century French aristocrats refused to pay taxes while indulging in
expensive foreign military adventures. They got away with it for many
yearsuntil the French Revolution suddenly laid waste to their privi-
lege. Todays elites risk making a similar mistake.
CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Some portion of the blame for the liberal orders woes lies with its
advocates. Policymakers pursued a path of action favored by many
academics, including us: building international institutions to promote
cooperation. But they did so in a biased wayand, for the most part,
we underestimated the risk that posed. Financial firms and major
corporations enjoyed privileged status within the orders institutions,
which paid little attention to the interests of workers. Wto rules
May/June 2017 39
emphasized openness and failed to encourage measures that would

cushion globalizations effects on those disadvantaged by it, especially
workers in the traditional manufacturing sectors in developed countries.
Meanwhile, investment treaties signed in the 1990s featured provisions
that corporate lawyers exploited to favor big business at the expense of
consumers. And when China manipulated trade and currency arrange-
ments to the disadvantage of working-class Americans, Washington
decided that other issues in U.S.-Chinese relations were more impor-
tant, and did not respond strongly.
Working-class Americans didnt necessarily understand the details of
global trade deals, but they saw elite Americans and people in China
and other developing countries becoming rapidly wealthier while
their own incomes stagnated or declined. It should not be surprising
that many of them agreed with Trump and with the Democratic pres-
idential primary contender Bernie Sanders that the game was rigged.
Much ink has been spilled on the domestic causes of the populist
revolt: racism, growing frustration with experts, dysfunctional economic
policies. But less attention has been paid to two contributing factors
that stemmed from the international order itself. The first was a
loss of national solidarity brought on by the end of the Cold War.
During that conflict, the perceived Soviet threat generated a strong
shared sense of attachment not only to Washingtons allies but also
to multilateral institutions. Social psychologists have demonstrated
the crucial importance of othering in identity formation, for indi-
viduals and nations alike: a clear sense of who is not on your team
makes you feel closer to those who are. The fall of the Soviet Union
removed the main other from the American political imagination
and thereby reduced social cohesion in the United States. The end
of the Cold War generated particular political difficulties for the
Republican Party, which had long been a bastion of anticommunism.
With the Soviets gone, Washington elites gradually replaced Commu-
nists as the Republicans bogeymen. Trumpism is the logical extension
of that development.
In Europe, the end of the Cold War was consequential for a related
reason. During the Cold War, leaders in Western Europe constantly
sought to stave off the domestic appeal of communism and socialism.
After 1989, no longer facing that constraint, national governments
and officials in Brussels expanded the eus authority and scope, even
in the face of a series of national referendums that expressed opposi-
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tion to that trend and should have served as warning signs of growing
working-class discontent. In eastern Europe, anti-Soviet othering was
strong during the 1980s and 1990s but appears to have faded as memo-
ries of the Cold War have become more distant. Without the specter
of communist-style authoritarianism haunting their societies, eastern
Europeans have become more susceptible to populism and other
forms of illiberalism. In Europe, as in the United States, the disap-
pearance of the Soviets undermined social cohesion and a common
sense of purpose.
The second force stirring discontent with the liberal order can be
called multilateral overreach. Interdependence requires countries
to curb their autonomy so that institutions such as the un and the
World Bank can facilitate cooperation and solve mutual problems. But
the natural tendency of institutions, their leaders, and the bureaucra-
cies that carry out their work is to expand their authority. Every time
they do so, they can point to some seemingly valid rationale. The
cumulative effect of such expansions of international authority, however,
is to excessively limit sovereignty and give people the sense that foreign
forces are controlling their lives. Since these multilateral institutions
are distant and undemocraticdespite their inclusive rhetoricthe
result is public alienation, as the political scientist Kathleen McNamara
has documented. That effect is compounded whenever multilateral
institutions reflect the interests of cosmopolitan elites at the expense
of others, as they often have.
SYSTEM UPDATE
Derigging the liberal order will require attention to substance but
also to perceptions. The United States has made only feeble attempts
to sustain something like Ruggies embedded liberalism, and even
those attempts have largely failed. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden
have done better, although their systems are also under pressure.
Washington has a poor track record when it comes to building gov-
ernment bureaucracies that reach deep into society, and the American
public is understandably suspicious of such efforts. So U.S. officials
will have to focus on reforms that do not require a lot of top-down
intervention.
To that end, Washington should be guided by three principles.
First, global integration must be accompanied by a set of domestic
policies that will allow all economic and social classes to share the
gains from globalization in a way that is highly visible to voters. Second,

international cooperation must be balanced with national interests to
prevent overreach, especially when it comes to the use of military
force. Third, Washington should nurture a uniquely American social
identity and a national narrative. That will require othering authoritar-
ian and illiberal countries. Fostering U.S. opposition to illiberalism
does not mean imposing democracy by force, but it does require more
than occasional diplomatic criticism of
countries such as China or Saudi Arabia.
A willing president could, for instance,
Like it or not, America
make it clear that although the United first is a powerful slogan.
States may have an interest in cooper-
ating with nondemocratic countries, it identifies only with liberal
democracies and reserves its closest relationships for them. Done
properly, that sort of othering could help clarify the American national
identity and build solidarity. It might at times constrain commercial
relationships. However, a society is more than just an economy, and
the benefits of social cohesion would justify a modest economic cost.
Developing policies that satisfy those principles will require innova-
tion and creativity. Some promising ideas include tax credits to busi-
nesses that provide on-the-job training for dislocated workers and
earned-income tax credits for individuals. Progressives have pursued
such policies in the past but in recent times have retreated or compro-
mised for the sake of passing trade deals; they should renew their
commitment to such ideas. Officials should also require that any new
trade deals be accompanied by progressive domestic measures to assist
those who wont benefit from the deals. At a minimum, Congress should
avoid regressive tax cuts. If, for example, the Trump administration
and its gop allies in Congress decide to impose a border adjustment
tax on imports, the revenue raised ought to benefit the working class.
One way to make that happen would be to directly redistribute the
revenue raised by the tax on a per capita basis, in the form of checks
to all households; that would spread the wealth and build political
support for the combination of economic openness and redistribution.
Another way to benefit the working class would be to stimulate job
creation by lowering employers payroll tax burden. Such ideas will
face an uphill battle in the current U.S. political environment, but it is
essential to develop plans now so that, when political opportunities
emerge, defenders of the liberal order will be ready.
May/June 2017 43
The more difficult task will be developing a national narrative,

broadly backed by elites across the ideological spectrum, about who
we areone built around opposition to authoritarianism and illiber-
alism. The main obstacle will likely be the politics of immigration,
where the tension between cosmopolitanism and national solidarity
surfaces most clearly. Cosmopolitans argue (correctly) that immi-
grants ultimately offer more benefits than costs and that nativist fears
about refugees are often based more on prejudice than fact. The
United States is a country of immigrants and continues to gain energy
and ideas from talented newcomers. Nonetheless, almost everyone
agrees that there is some limit to how rapidly a country can absorb
immigrants, and that implies a need for tough decisions about how
fast people can come in and how many resources should be devoted
to their integration. It is not bigotry to calibrate immigration levels
to the ability of immigrants to assimilate and to societys ability to
adjust. Proponents of a global liberal order must find ways of seeking
greater national consensus on this issue. To be politically sustainable,
their ideas will have to respect the importance of national solidarity.
Like it or not, global populism has a clear, marketable ideology,
defined by toughness, nationalism, and nativism: America first is a
powerful slogan. To respond, proponents of an open liberal order must
offer a similarly clear, coherent alternative, and it must address, rather
than dismiss, the problems felt keenly by working classes. For Demo-
crats, the party of jobs would be a better brand than the party of
increasing aggregate welfare while compensating the losers from trade.
Without dramatic change to their messages and approach, estab-
lished political parties will fade away altogether. An outsider has already
captured the Republican Party; the Democrats are cornered on the
coasts. In Europe, the British Labour Party is imploding and the tra-
ditionally dominant French parties are falling apart. To adapt, estab-
lishment parties must begin to frame their ideas differently. As the
social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has argued, progressives must learn
to speak of honor, loyalty, and order in addition to equality and rights.
To derig the liberal order and stave off complete defeat at the
hands of populists, however, traditional parties must do more than
rebrand themselves and their ideas. They must develop substantive
policies that will make globalization serve the interests of middle-
and working-class citizens. Absent such changes, the global liberal
order will wither away.
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The False Promise of

Protectionism
Why Trumps Trade Policy Could Backfire
Douglas A. Irwin
I
n his inaugural address, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged
that economic nationalism would be the hallmark of his trade
policy. We must protect our borders from the ravages of other
countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying
our jobs, he said. Within days, he withdrew the United States from
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (tpp), announced that he would rene
gotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (nafta), and threat
ened to impose a special tax on U.S. companies that move their
factories abroad.
Although Trumps professed goal is to get a better deal on trade, his
brand of economic nationalism is just one step away from old-fashioned
protectionism. The president claimed that protection will lead to
great prosperity and strength. Yet the opposite is true. An America
first trade policy would do nothing to create new manufacturing jobs
or narrow the trade deficit, the gap between imports and exports.
Instead, it risks triggering a global trade war that would prove
damaging to all countries. A slide toward protectionism would also
undermine the institutions that the United States has long worked to
support, such as the World Trade Organization (wto), which have
made meaningful contributions to global peace and prosperity.
At the same time, not all tariffs are bad. Congress is considering corpo
rate tax reforms that would involve a border adjustment taxa tax
that would apply to all imports to the United States but not to exports.
If implemented fairly, such a measure would not be protectionist.
DOUGLAS A. IRWIN is Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and the author of
the forthcoming book Clashing Over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy. Follow him
on Twitter @D_A_Irwin.
May/June 2017 45
Douglas A. Irwin
Likewise, not all trade threats are bad. Although it is true that closing
the market to foreign competition is the wrong way to improve U.S.
economic performance, the threat of closing the market has some-
times helped ensure compliance with international trade rules. But
this is a high-risk strategy that must be used with care, since it could
spark damaging foreign reprisals.
It is all the riskier given the growing nationalist sentiment around
the world. According to the wto, the import restrictions imposed by
G-20 countries since 2008 now cover a disturbingly high 6.5 percent of
their merchandise imports. The rate at which new measures are being
imposed exceeds the rate at which old measures are being removed,
resulting in the steady accumulation of
trade barriers. In January, citing protec
The Trump administration tionist pressures, the World Bank
must recognize that reduced its forecast for global economic
protectionism at home can growth in 2017.
lead to protectionism abroad. In this environment, a move toward
protectionism by Washington could
unleash a similar response abroad. Such
a scenario has a historical precedent: when Congress passed the
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, it was taken as the signal for an
outburst of tariff-making activity in other countries, partly at least by
way of reprisals, as a League of Nations report explained at the
time. Washington should not send that signal again.
As the Trump administration plots its next move, it should take
care to distinguish between what trade policy can achieve and what
it cannot, and between changes to current policy that would be
constructive and those that would prove counterproductive. It must
also recognize that protectionism at home can lead to protectionism
abroad. Indeed, perhaps the greatest danger of Trumps trade policy
is that a misstep might do irreparable damage to the open world
trading system that the United States had, until now, so assidu-
ously promoted since World War II. That system constrains the
policies of the 163 other wto members, with which the United
States trades. If the United States backs away from current trade
rules, those countries will feel free to discriminate against the
United States, and the system will unraveldoing grave damage
not only to the global economy but also to the very Americans
Trump claims to represent.
The False Promise of Protectionism
THE PERILS OF PROTECTIONISM

Although free trade is always under fire, the barrage has been particu-
larly intense in recent years. U.S. politicians often blame trade for the
loss of manufacturing jobs and the destruction of the middle class, and
many voters seem to agree. It was Trumps willingness to acknowledge
the rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape
of our nation and to question establishment views on trade agreements
that won him support in the Rust Belt.
But the reality is that factors other than foreign trade are to blame
for the countrys current economic woes. The share of Americans who
work in manufacturing has fallen steadily since the early 1950s, mainly
due to automation and productivity growth. The labor-force partici-
pation rate among working-age males has been declining since 1960.
The stagnation in real earnings of men also dates back to the early
1960s. These trends started well before the era of deregulation and
free trade in the 1980s and 1990s, let alone the China shock of the
first decade of this century. Complaints about the plight of middle-
class workers resonate so much today, however, because the U.S. labor
market has experienced more than a decade of lackluster performance,
owing to the slow recovery from the 2008 financial crisis. Since then,
trade has not significantly disrupted the U.S. labor market because
imports have not been surging into the country.
The problem with wrongly blaming trade for these recent difficulties
is that it makes it all too easy to propose protectionism as the quick
fix. After all, if imports are seen as the problem, then reducing them
by reversing existing trade policies, tearing up nafta, or slapping high
duties on Chinese goodswould seem to be the solution. Yet simply
rolling back trade will not repair the damage that has been done.
Those who want to curtail trade claim that such actions will revitalize
basic manufacturing industries, create new manufacturing jobs, and
reduce the trade deficit. In fact, higher trade barriers would fail to
achieve any of these objectives.
Why cant trade protection be used to revitalize basic industries
that have suffered? After all, some claim, in the 1980s the Reagan
administration imposed many import barriers, which seemed to
help domestic industries cope with increased foreign competition.
Confronted with a large and growing trade deficit, the United
States pressured Japan to agree to reduce its automobile exports,
forced foreign suppliers to limit their steel exports, and negotiated
May/June 2017 47
Douglas A. Irwin
a new arrangement that restricted imports of textiles and apparel.

Because the economy recovered and employment grew, Robert
Lighthizer, a trade negotiator in the Reagan administration whom
Trump has tapped to be the U.S. trade representative, has asserted
that Reagan-era import restrictions worked.
But that judgment runs counter to the evidence. In a 1982 report,
the U.S. International Trade Commission found that most industries
receiving trade relief were undergoing long-term declines that import
restrictions could not reverse. Such measures did little to help companies,
it stated, either because so much of the firms injury was caused by
non-import-related factors, or because the decline of imports following
relief was small. Four years later, when the Congressional Budget
Office studied the question, it concluded, Trade restraints have failed
to achieve their primary objective of increasing the international
competitiveness of the relevant industries.
Just as it is today, trade then was wrongly blamed for the prob-
lems facing U.S. producers. What really afflicted them were fac-
tors beyond the reach of trade policy. The first was a cyclical
problem: the severe recession in 198182 that resulted
from the tight monetary policy the U.S. Federal Reserve
had adopted to reduce inflation. That policy contributed
to a 40 percent real appreciation of the dollar against other currencies

between 1981 and 1985, making U.S.-made goods far less competitive
at home and abroad. Then there were various structural problems:
Big Steel lost market share to low-cost domestic mini-mills that
could recycle scrap metal, and the Big Three automakers were
slow to improve quality and shift to the smaller, more fuel-efficient
cars that consumers were demanding. Eventually, U.S. producers
did regain their competitiveness, but they did not do so thanks to
protectionist policies. Credit goes instead to the economic recov-
ery that started in 1983 and the weakening of the dollar that
started in 1985.
One should look back at the Reagan-era protectionism not with
nostalgia but with regret, because it proved to be a costly failure.
The restrictions on automobile imports raised the average price of
a Japanese car by 16 percent in the early 1980s, socking it to con-
sumers and handing billions of dollars to Japanese exporters. The
limitations on steel imports punished steel-using industries, and
those on textile and apparel imports raised prices for low-income
consumers. When it comes to using protection to help revitalize do-
mestic industries, the United States has been there, done that. It
didnt work.
May/June 2017 49
Douglas A. Irwin
BAD BARRIERS
Today, the prospect that import restrictions can help domestic produc
ers is even dimmer than it was in the 1980s. Thats because firms
engaged in international trade now form part of intricate global supply
chains. About half of all U.S. imports consist of intermediate goods,
such as factory equipment, parts and components, and raw materials.
Many U.S. companies depend on imported intermediate goods in
their production process or sell their outputs to other firms around
the world that use them as inputs. As a result, protectionist measures
today would prove much more disruptive than they did in the 1980s.
The implications for trade policy are enormous. Any import
restriction that helps some upstream producers by raising the prices
of the goods they sell will hurt downstream industries that use those
goods in production. If a tariff raises the price of steel to help U.S.
Steel, it will hurt steel consumers such as John Deere and Caterpillar
by raising their costs relative to those of foreign competitors. If a
quota keeps out imported sugar to boost domestic prices, it will raise
costs for the domestic confectionery industry. (Indeed, in 2002, Kraft
moved the production of Life Savers candy to Canada in response to
the high cost of sugar in the United States.) Typically, there are far
more workers in the downstream industries whose jobs will be
jeopardized by trade restrictions than workers in the upstream indus
tries whose jobs might be saved by them. In an effort to help the
147,000 Americans employed in the steel industry, for example,
Washington may harm the 6.5 million Americans employed in steel-
using industries.
Even if trade protection can succeed in helping some domestic
producers at the expense of others, it is an illusion to think that it
will create many new manufacturing jobs, particularly for low-
skilled workers. In the United States, manufacturing has become
technologically sophisticated and involves many more engineers
and technicians than blue-collar workers on the assembly lines. The
clock cannot be turned back. Consider the steel industry: in 1980,
it took ten man-hours to produce a ton of steel; today it takes just
two. So boosting steel output will not create nearly as many jobs as
it would have in the past.
Even if a particular trade measure succeeds in terms of protecting
jobs in a specific sector, it will cost consumers dearly. When the
Obama administration imposed special duties on tires imported from
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China in 2009, the measure saved at most about 1,200 jobsat a cost
to consumers, in the form of higher tire prices, of $900,000 per job.
And by pushing U.S. production toward the types of lower-quality
tires that the United States had been importing and away from the
high-quality tires that U.S. producers specialized in making, the tariff
froze American workers in low-end jobs at the expense of high-end
ones. No country can protect the jobs of the past without losing the
jobs of the future.
Another reason trade protection today makes even less sense than
it did three decades ago is that other countries are sure to retaliate in
a way that they did not before. Back
then, the United States demanded that
other countries restrict their exports
The mix of macroeconomic
to the United States. Because foreign policies Trump has promised
suppliers reduced their exports them will likely enlarge, rather
selves to avoid U.S. punishment, they than shrink, the trade deficit.
were able to charge much more for these
suddenly scarce goods and earn excep
tionally high profits. Although countries such as Japan did not always
like restricting their exports, they did not strike back because the
United States was not imposing tariffs on them.
Today, such export restrictions would violate wto rules. If the
United States nonetheless arbitrarily imposed steep tariffs or other
trade restrictions on imports, other countries would inevitably retaliate
against U.S. exports. That would directly threaten U.S. farm and
factory workers. In a report released last year, the Department of
Commerce estimated that 11.5 million U.S. jobs were supported by
exports. Those jobswhich tend to pay above-average wages for
manufacturingwould be jeopardized if the United States started
slapping taxes on imports. Protectionism is a game that more than
one country can play.
Foreign retaliation could even occur if the measures were permis
sible under wto rules. In the past, whenever the United States slapped
duties on Chinese imports under antidumping provisions allowed by
the wto, Chinas regulators would suddenly find that U.S. poultry or
pork was contaminated and had to be banned, its airlines would start
buying from Airbus instead of Boeing, or its food companies would
purchase Argentine soybeans and Australian wheat rather than the
American equivalents.
May/June 2017 51
Douglas A. Irwin
Finally, protectionism damages the U.S. economy even when no one

retaliates. Trade restrictions increase the price of imported goods
not just for businesses that employ workers but for households, too.
The higher prices that these consumers pay for goods affected by
import restrictions reduce the amount of money they can spend
on other goods. To make matters worse, tariffs on imports also act as
a kind of regressive tax. Because poorer households tend to spend
proportionately more of their income on tradable goods such as food,
clothing, and footwear, they bear a disproportionate burden of import
restrictions. You wouldnt know it from listening to most politicians,
but low- and middle-income households benefit substantially more
from trade than do high-income households.
THE TRADE DEFICIT FALLACY

Import barriers are often proposed as a way to shrink the trade deficit,
a particular bugbear of Trumps. Yet it is far from clear that reducing
the trade deficit should be a policy priority. Unlike in the 1980s, when
the current account deficit was growing rapidly, today, it has remained
stable for nearly a decade, at about two to three percent of gdp. Im-
ports are not flooding into the United States; in fact, in 2016, the
value of U.S. imports from China fell by four percent from the previ-
ous year. Even if one believes that closing the trade gap would boost
employmentand the consensus among economists is that it would
notpast experience suggests that restricting imports alone would
fail to narrow the deficit. The United States had a trade surplus when
it imposed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, but exports fell in step with
imports and the trade balance did not budge. In the 1980s, the trade
deficit continued to grow in spite of the Reagan administrations pro-
tectionist measures.
The trade deficit is impervious to import restrictions, particularly
in an era of floating exchange rates, because it is determined not by
trade policies but by net capital flows into the United States. As econ-
omists have long emphasized, unless domestic savings rise (a good
thing) or national investment falls (a bad thing), the United States
will be a recipient of capital from abroad. Because the dollar is the
worlds reserve currency, the closest thing to a safe asset in the global
financial system, foreign demand for dollar-denominated assets will
remain strong. The continued demand for safe assets means that other
countries will use some of their dollar earnings to buy U.S. assets
instead of U.S. goods. This, in turn, means that the United States will
continue to buy more from other countries than they do from it.
Ironically, even though Trump has said that he wants to reduce the
trade deficit, the mix of macroeconomic policies he has promised will
likely enlarge, rather than shrink, it. Just as the Reagan administration
discovered, the combination of an expansionary fiscal policy (Trump
has promised lower taxes and greater infrastructure spending) and a
tighter monetary policy (the Federal Reserves ongoing response to
falling unemployment) will cause the dollar to appreciate against other
currencies. In the 1980s, these policies dealt a painful blow to U.S.
companies that exported goods or competed against imports. The
result was a growing trade deficit and louder calls for protectionist
measures. Over the past three years, the dollar has already risen by
more than 25 percent compared with other currencies. If the Federal
Reserve continues to tighten monetary policy and the fiscal deficit
continues to grow, the trade deficit will likely grow, too, despite Trumps
trade policies.
LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD

Even though the case against protectionism remains strong, that does
not mean that activist trade policies have no role to play. One thing
the Reagan administration did that the Trump administration could
usefully emulate was to undertake strong trade-enforcement measures.
Ronald Reagan always insisted that free trade required enforcing the
rules. As he put it, When governments assist their exporters in ways
that violate international laws, then the playing field is no longer level,
and there is no longer free trade. Thats why his administration pursued
trade agreements: to establish rules to constrain unfair policies. And yet
to reach such agreements, it is sometimes necessary to threaten higher
trade barriers. Supporters of free trade often object to such tactics, but
even Adam Smith argued that it might be worthwhile for a country to
threaten to close its market if the move brought about a change in foreign
behavior. Although the Obama administration filed many new cases
involving specific products and specific countries with the wto, such a
piecemeal approach falls short of addressing a real and growing problem:
whether international competition between private domestic firms and
foreign state-owned or state-supported firms can ever truly be fair.
The problem is most acute when it comes to China. Chinas state
banks routinely engage in generous and unprofitable lending that leads
May/June 2017 53
Douglas A. Irwin
to excess capacity in various industries, such as steel. China produces

half of the worlds steel, and as its economy has slowed, massive excess
capacity has built up in that sector. In a market system, unneeded
plants would shut down. But in China, the visible hand of the state is
at work, as government-owned banks prop up uneconomic production
capacity with cheap credit. China then dumps its surplus steel on
other countries, where calls for protectionism grow.
Free-trade supporters are of two minds about foreign subsidies. On
the one hand, these subsidies reduce the price paid by U.S. consum-
ers, who should send a thank-you note to foreign taxpayers for their
generosity. On the other hand, foreign subsidies distort markets in a
way that is costly not only to the subsidizing country but also to other
countries. In the countries importing the subsidized goods, plants are
idled and workers are laid offadjustment costs that the subsidizing
country avoids. A political backlash can result: when foreign subsidies
harm an important domestic industry, free trade gets a bad name and
becomes a harder sell at home. As a result, the United States has
tended to err on the side of opposing foreign subsidies. It has, for
example, attacked Europes agricultural subsidies as detrimental to
American farmers and its subsidies to Airbus as a threat to Boeing,
and it has sought agreements to rein in both.
So how should the United States respond to, for example, Chinese
steel subsidies? Imposing antidumping duties is not the answer, since
they would fail to solve the underlying problem of excess capacity
and would punish steel-consuming industries in the United States.
Paradoxically, however, threatening reprisals of some sort may be the
answer; politely asking China to cut back its steel subsidies would
accomplish nothing. Confronting unfair trade practices with the
threat of retaliation is not protectionism in the usual sense. Instead, it
represents an attempt to free world markets from distortions. In order
to return trade to a market basis, Washington may have to threaten
trade sanctions, some of which might have to be carried out for the
threats to gain credibility. This process will no doubt be disruptive
and controversial, but if handled skillfully, the end result could make
it worthwhile.
Once again, the 1980s offers useful lessons. In 1985, Reagan used
the power granted to him under a provision of U.S. trade law known
as Section 301 to attack unfair foreign trade practices, such as the
barring of U.S. products from certain markets. Although the U.S.
action prompted bitter foreign protests, Arthur Dunkel, the Swiss

director general of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (the
predecessor to the wto), later admitted that it was one of the best
things the United States had ever done for the multilateral trading
system: it helped unite the world behind an effort to strengthen the
rules-based system in the 198694 Uruguay Round of international
trade negotiations. The wtos dispute-settlement system has proved
remarkably successful and should be supported, but it may not be
capable of handling every type of trade disagreement.
A border adjustment tax is another policy currently under consid
eration that is sometimes labeled as protectionist but need not be.
Republicans in the House of Representatives are pushing a major tax
reform package that would change the way corporations are taxed.
Instead of being based on where goods are produced, the tax would be
applied on the basis of where goods end up. The tax would also involve
a border adjustment, meaning that it would not be imposed on U.S.
exports (which are taxed in other countries) but it would apply to all
imports. In essence, the tax burden would shift from goods produced
in the United States to goods consumed in the United States.
Such measures are standard practice for countries that have value-
added taxes and wish to equalize the tax treatment between domestic
and foreign goods, and they are consistent with wto rules. Whether
the particular border adjustment tax that Congress is considering now
conforms to wto rules remains an open question. Still, the principle
remains: a border adjustment tax is not protectionist if it does not
discriminate in favor of U.S. producers and instead simply ensures
that the same tax is imposed on all sellers in the U.S. market, regard-
less of where their goods are produced.
THE FUTURE OF FREE TRADE

Trumps America first trade rhetoric has sparked fears in foreign
capitals of a coming trade war. Economists of all political stripes
remain deeply skeptical that the protectionist measures the president
discussed during the campaign will spur a renaissance of manufacturing
production or do much to boost employment.
Yet Trumps pronouncements on trade are not just economically
problematic; they also raise troubling questions about the United States
place in the world. A turn inward would mean abandoning global
leadership, threatening the countrys economic and political interests.
May/June 2017 55
Douglas A. Irwin
Already, the abrupt termination of the tpp has stoked fears of a

U.S. retreat from Asia. Trumps saber rattling with Mexico has led
to a growing anti-American backlash there. Just consider what happened
in Canada after the United States imposed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff.
The pro-American, pro-free-trade Liberal government lost power
to the protectionist Conservative Party, which promptly retaliated
against U.S. exports. In Mexico, the last thing the United States
needs is to inadvertently give rise to an anti-American president who
returns to economic nationalism and seeks common cause with leftist
governments in Cuba and Venezuela.
There is a charitable view of Trumps threats to impose trade barriers,
however: that they represent a negotiating tactic to seek new agree
ments that would scale back other countries distorting policies. In a
January interview with The New York Times, Trump called himself a
free trader but added, Its got to be reasonably fair. Likewise, the
administration has announced that it wants to replace the tpp with a
series of bilateral agreements, although its not clear why a dozen
bilateral agreements would prove superior to one regional agreement.
Unfortunately, most of what Trump has said to date suggests that
he is interested in protectionism for protectionisms sake. He seems to
view international trade as a zero-sum game, in which one country
wins and another loses, with the trade balance being the scorecard.
We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American,
he said in his inaugural address. But if every country adopted a similar
pledge, international trade would shrivel up.
Lessons from the past, such as the trade disaster of the 1930s, suggest
that protectionism begets protectionism. Indeed, a poll released in
February found that 58 percent of Canadians want their government
to fight a trade war if the United States imposes tariffs on Canadian
goods. History also reveals that trade barriers are easy to impose and
hard to remove. And it can take decades to repair the damage.
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Intelligence and the

Presidency
How to Get It Right
Jami Miscik
U
.S. presidents and other senior policymakers often come into
office knowing little about the 17 federal agencies and offices
that make up the U.S. intelligence community, but in short
order, they come to rely heavily on its unique technologies, tradecraft,
and expert analysis. The intelligence communitys mission is to provide
national leaders with the best and most timely information available
on global affairs and national security issuesinformation that, in turn,
can help those leaders achieve their foreign policy objectives.
The president is the countrys top intelligence consumer and the
only person who can authorize a covert action, and the services he
receives from the intelligence community can be invaluableproviding
early warning of brewing trouble, identifying and disrupting threats
before they materialize, gaining insight into foreign leaders, and discreetly
affecting developments abroad. For the relationship between intelligence
producers and consumers to work effectively, however, each needs to
understand and trust the other.
INFORMATION, NOT POLICY

The most common misperception about the intelligence community is
that it makes policy. It doesnt. As Allen Dulles, the director of central
intelligence from 1953 to 1961, once said, Intelligence is the servant,
not the master, of foreign policy. A new administration considers and
articulates what it stands for and what it hopes to achieve; it develops
policies and informational priorities, and then it deploys the resources
of the intelligence community based on those priorities.
JAMI MISCIK is CEO of Kissinger Associates and former Deputy Director for Intelligence
at the CIA. She is also Chair of Foreign Affairs Advisory Board.
May/June 2017 57
Jami Miscik
The intelligence community, in other words, cannot operate in a

vacuum. It must be told what to look for and what is most important.
The White House must be disciplined in its tasking; if everything is
a priority, then nothing is. Moreover, it needs to remain engaged and
update its thinking. Over time, some issues will rise in importance
and some will fall. Without regular dialogue and guidance, the intel
ligence community will do what it can to respond appropriately to
global changes and improvise ways to balance competing requests. But
the tradeoffs will often go unnoticed by senior policymakers until a
crisis exposes deficiencies in intelligence collection.
The intelligence community needs to have close and regular access
to all senior national security policymakers, including the president,
the vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the
secretary of homeland security, and the national security adviser. If
the producers of intelligence dont know the status of ongoing opera-
tions and negotiations, then their product will not be responsive to the
consumers needs and will be dismissed as irrelevant. And the window
of policy relevance is open only briefly. The reward for warning about
something too early is to be ignored, and the reward for warning too
late is to risk becoming the latest example of intelligence failure.
In order to work well together during a crisis, when the stakes are
highest, intelligence producers and consumers need to have established
a good working relationship long before the crisis hits. Personal
connections and regular briefings can help establish trust and mutual
understanding. Noncrisis periods are opportunities to work on the
relationship and prepare for the future, because when a crisis does hit,
there is no time for on-the-job training and coming up to speed on
how to best utilize intelligence assets.
The intelligence communitys relationship with senior policymakers
must be close and trusted, or else neither party will be able to do its job
well. At the same time, intelligence professionals have to be careful not
to get drawn into policy debates or partisan politics. Should a president
or a cabinet member ask intelligence officers for an opinion on policy, the
officers should refuse to give it, because that is not their remit; they do
not make policy. The training and culture of intelligence officers
underscore this ethos.
The American system of government requires a new president to
place his full trust in an intelligence community that loyally served
his predecessor right up until the inauguration. This is a lot to ask,
Truth tellers: at the headquarters of the CIA, in Virginia, August 2008

especially if senior administration figures have little experience with
the intelligence community. The potential for distrust is high,
but intelligence officers are loyal, trustworthy, and committed to
serving the presidency. They serve without regard to political
affiliation and are trained to present their findings without personal
or political agendas.
Reading a report from a cia officer in the field, a former White House
official once asked, Is he a Republican or a Democrat? Not only did
the briefer not know, but as would most of his colleagues, he found the
very premise of the question abhorrent. The new administration should
take care not to make assumptions about the political leanings of the
intelligence community or infer that it knows how intelligence officers
voted. Unlike in other U.S. government departments, where there are
many political appointees, in the intelligence community, most members
are careerists who have served under both Democratic and Republican
administrations. The whole point of the National Security Act of 1947,
L A R RY D O W N I N G / R E U T E R S
which codified modern governmental arrangements, was to foster a

professional national security community inoculated against partisan
politics. This is why public concerns were raised when a political adviser
was added to the National Security Councils Principals Committee.
When intelligence officers brief senior policymakers, they are there
to do a job, not to be loved or to score political points. A former director
May/June 2017 59
Jami Miscik
of central intelligence likened it to being the skunk at the garden

party: frequently, the job is to tell policymakers what they do not
want to hear. Senior administration officials are invested in the
policies of their administration, but intelligence officers are not. It
is the essence of the intelligence communitys creed to speak truth
to power, and those who do so responsibly are considered heroes of
the profession.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
At the start of a new administration, policymakers should have realistic
expectations of what intelligence can and cannot do. Many assume
that the intelligence community tries to predict the future. It does not.
Intelligence officers present the intelligence that has been collected,
assess it, and evaluate possible actions and outcomes. They anticipate
possible contingencies and warn about possible dangers, but they do
not try to predict results. The relationship between intelligence
officers and policymakers resembles that of scouts and coaches. A
scout is responsible for studying the strengths, weaknesses, and
tendencies of the other team. The scouts job is to provide data and
insights on the opposition. Armed with that information, the coach
can then decide how to deploy the team and what plays to execute.
The scouts goal is to help the coach win, but nobody expects the scout
to correctly predict the final score before the game is played.
Policymakers new to government must understand that intel
ligence operates in a world of uncertainties and changing realities.
As Clausewitz noted, Many intelligence reports in war are con
tradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain. . . . In
short, most intelligence is false. All too often, this remains true
today. But false or incorrect is not fake, nor is it necessarily failure.
Intelligence officers are forced to deal with partial bits of
information, some sources who faithfully report inaccurate infor
mation that they mistakenly believe is correct, and other sources
who are deliberately trying to mislead and deceive. Intelligence is
cumulative, moreover, and earlier reports may prove less accurate
than later ones. As more intelligence is collected, analysts can
dismiss some reports that they had once credited. This natural and
correct dynamic should not be seen as waffling or simply changing
the story. It is actually how increasingly sophisticated answers to
intelligence puzzles emerge.
When the intelligence community gets it wrong, it must own its

mistakes. These professionals owe the country, the president, and
themselves an understanding of what went wrong, why, and what measures
have been taken to ensure the same mistakes are not repeated. That is
exactly what I believed the cia needed in the aftermath of the invasion
of Iraq in 2003, when no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction
were found, completely contrary to our judgments. I put together a
special team to find out where we had gone wrong, and then, borrow-
ing a practice from the U.S. Navy, I
ordered a safety stand-down for all
the analysts at the cia to ensure that
It is the essence of the
the lessons learned were conveyed to intelligence communitys
everybody, not just those who had creed to speak truth to
worked on Iraq. In a culture of secrets, power.
some may try to gloss over problems
in hopes that the mistakes are never
discovered. It is incumbent on the leadership of the intelligence
community to hold their officers accountable and demand that mis-
takes be acknowledged, analyzed, and rectified.
Policymakers should be able to aggressively question analytic
judgments and raw reporting without being accused of politicizing
intelligence. Politicization can occur only when intelligence professionals
alter their findings to meet policymakers desires. Aggressive questioning
should be welcomed, in fact, because it forces analysts to defend their
reasoning and leads to deeper understanding of the raw reporting that
underlies their judgments. Policymakers need to understand not only
what the intelligence community knows but also what it doesnt know.
Having learned from the mistakes made about Iraq, the intelligence
community now carefully conveys the level of confidence it places on
the judgments it makes. Policymakers should also ask what could
cause these judgments to change, what are the truly critical factors on
which each judgment restslinchpin analysis, in intelligence speak.
Policymakers sometimes go too far and try to intimidate analysts
into changing or shading their judgments to fit a political objective.
When that doesnt work, some have gone so far as to set up their own
intelligence shops, as Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and
Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz did in establishing the
Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon in the run-up to the Iraq war
to find politically desired linkages between Saddam Hussein and
May/June 2017 61
Jami Miscik
al Qaeda. But policymakers cannot politicize intelligence professionals

who refuse to go along.
RISKY BUSINESS
To gain an edge over their targets, intelligence officers have to take
risks. They must face unimaginable dangers and overcome incredible
obstacles just to collect small but critical fragments of an unknown
story. The essential national service they provide should not be
dismissed, minimized, or overlooked by the president or senior policy
makers. Law enforcement officers, first responders, and members of the
military and intelligence services are the only Americans who vol
untarily agree to run mortal risks for their fellow citizens. The cias
memorial wall honors 117 officers who died in the line of duty; many
of them still remain undercover. As George Tenet, the former director
of central intelligence, has said, their families and colleagues must
have the courage to bear great grief in silence. Their service and that
of currently serving officers should be respected.
When using intelligence, policymakers need to be risk takers of a
different kind. They might base a decision on intelligence that turns out
to be wrong. A presidentially approved covert operation may be blown,
leading to death, embarrassment, or retaliation. A foreign leader may
learn that U.S. intelligence has been monitoring his or her phone
calls. Skiers, when renting equipment, sign a waiver that begins with
the phrase, Skiing is an inherently dangerous sport. National security
policymakers should mentally sign a similar waiverand in practice ask
themselves, How much risk are we willing to take?
Faced with the complexities of international crises, presidents are
often drawn to the option of covert action. As Henry Kissinger once
described it, We need an intelligence community that, in certain
complicated situations, can defend the American national interest in
the gray areas where military operations are not suitable and diplomacy
cannot operate. Covert action can range from propaganda to coup
plotting to paramilitary operations. Used judiciously, it can be an
effective foreign policy tool, but it cannot substitute for not having a
policy in the first place.
Covert actions pose three risks for policymakers: exposure, failure,
and the blowback of unintended consequences. Traditionally, covert
action was the mandate solely of the cia, with operations requiring a
finding personally signed by the president and timely notification of
Congress. In recent years, under the guise of force protection or

battlefield preparation, the U.S. military has conducted intelligence
activities abroad that would have required a covert-action finding if
conducted by the cia. New policymakers with appropriate clearances
will need to fully understand the extent of this activity and the
potential risks engendered by it.
Both policymakers and the intelligence community are accountable
to the American people, yet ensuring such accountability can be
difficult. The public understands that the intelligence community must
keep secrets, but that very secrecy can fuel concerns about government
overreach. These days, it is not always clear where a foreign threat
ends and a domestic threat begins, and government agencies need to
share intelligence in order to prevent disasters. However, given the
power and reach of U.S. capabilities for intercepting communications,
such sharing raises legitimate concerns about civil liberties and privacy.
A healthy conversation and debate on these issues are both necessary
and wise. The intelligence community does not ignore such concerns, but
often, it wants to address the tension between collection and protection
in classified venues such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
the National Security Council, or the congressional intelligence oversight
committees. But those concerned with civil liberties want them addressed
in the public domain. However the balance is achieved, the American
people must be confident that the internal controls are appropriate and
that external oversight has sufficient visibility to be effective.
FORWARD GUIDANCE
To meet current and future challenges, the U.S. intelligence community
must constantly innovate and improve. A new administration can
bring a fresh perspective on how best to organize and modernize the
community, and positive change should be embraced and welcomed
by intelligence professionals. The new national security team, however,
needs to balance a desire for change against the potential disruption
drastic change may cause in the intelligence mission. Although disruption
can be a positive force in technology and business, in the intelligence
community, it could carry serious risks.
Future relations between intelligence producers and consumers in
Washington remain uncertain. The gravity of the presidency and the
weight of the decisions the president alone must make almost inevitably
change the person who sits behind the desk. As the complexities of the
May/June 2017 63
Jami Miscik
international challenges facing the United States become clear, the

value of intelligence in dealing with those challenges may lead senior
administration officials to rely more heavily on the intelligence com
munity. Mike Pompeo, the director of the cia; Gina Haspel, the
deputy director; and Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence,
are well positioned to lead the community into the future. But the
importance of the intelligence communitys relationship with the
president himself cannot be overstated. If human sources dont believe
that their intelligence will make a difference, they may not take the
extra chance to meet with a case officer. If friendly foreign intelligence
services believe that their most sensitive information might be leaked
to the public as part of political score-settling, they will hold back
and be disinclined to share. Leaders of the intelligence community
must be able to walk into the presidents office at any time and be
received openly and professionally.
The members of the U.S. intelligence community serve their country
proudly and help it remain strong. Their professionalism is a bulwark
of American democracy, and they should be respected for the work
they do. Unless quickly rectified, policymakers misconceptions about
intelligence professionals and their motivations could endanger
U.S. national security. The relationship needs to be recalibrated, with
policymakers gaining a deeper understanding of and appreciation
for the work of intelligence professionalsa mission in which
alternative facts have no place.
Getting Tough on
North Korea
How to Hit Pyongyang Where It Hurts
Joshua Stanton, Sung-Yoon Lee, and
Bruce Klingner
F
or the past quarter century, the United States and South Korea
have tried to convince North Korea to abandon its nuclear
aspirations. Beginning in the early 1990s, Washington attempted
to bargain with Pyongyang, while Seoul pursued a strategy of economic
engagement, effectively subsidizing Pyongyang with aid and in
vestment even as it continued to develop nuclear weapons. Then,
after North Korea tested an atomic bomb in 2006, the United States
pressed the un Security Council to impose sanctions on North Korea.
Yet at the urging of South Korea and for fear of angering China, the
United States failed to use its full diplomatic and financial power to
enforce those sanctions. All along, the goal has been to induce North
Korea to open up to the outside world and roll back its nuclear and
missile programs.
This combination of sanctions and subsidies has failed. North
Korea already possesses the ability to hit Japan and South Korea with
nuclear weapons and will soon have the ability to hit the continental
United States with one. Despite what some in Washington and Seoul
want to believe, the countrys leader, Kim Jong Un, is no reformer.
He has staked his legitimacy on perfecting the nuclear arsenal his
father and grandfather bought at the cost of billions of dollars and
JOSHUA STANTON is an attorney in Washington, D.C., and was the principal drafter of
the legislation that later became the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of
2016. Follow him on Twitter @freekorea_us.
SUNG-YOON LEE is Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor in Korean Studies at Tufts
Universitys Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
BRUCE KLINGNER is Senior Research Fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Founda-
tion. Follow him on Twitter @BruceKlingner.
May/June 2017 65
millions of lives. If he will disarm at all, he will do so only under duress

so extreme that it threatens the survival of his regime.
To protect the United States and its allies from the North Korean
threat and prevent further nuclear proliferation, the Trump administra-
tion must end the incoherent policy of simultaneously sanctioning and
subsidizing Pyongyang. Instead, it should crack down on the foreign
financial dealings of North Korean officials and companies and the
foreign states that help them. The world is facing its greatest nuclear
emergency since the Cuban missile crisis. Its past time for the United
States to act decisively.
ROGUE STATE
For decades, North Korea has represented a second-tier crisis for the
United Statesnever topping Iran, for example, as a nonproliferation
priority, or Sudan as a humanitarian priority, or Iraq as a security
priority. Every president since Bill Clinton has played for time, hoping
that the North Korean regime would collapse while doing nothing to
undermine it, and at times even propping it up with aid and by
relaxing sanctions. The last three administrations cut a series of deals
that traded hard cash for false promises. Time and again, North Korea
agreed to dismantle its nuclear weapons program but did not.
In 1994, Clinton signed the first U.S. deal with Pyongyang: a pact,
known as the Agreed Framework, that offered generous fuel aid and
help building two expensive nuclear power reactors in return for
promises from North Koreas then leader, Kim Jong Il, to halt both his
uranium- and his plutonium-based nuclear programs. In 2002,
U.S. President George W. Bush, having learned that Pyongyang was
cheating by secretly enriching uranium, responded by stopping the
flow of aid. After that, Kim pulled out of the agreement, withdrew
from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and restarted his plutonium
reactor. Despite this history, Bush signed his own agreement with
North Korea in 2007, under which he allowed North Korean entities
to use the dollar system, provided more aid, relaxed sanctions, and
removed the country from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Within a year, Pyongyang balked at signing a verification protocol,
and the deal collapsed as Bush left office.
U.S. President Barack Obama entered office promising to reach
out a hand if Kim would unclench his fist. Within months, Kim
answered by testing first a long-range missile and then a nuclear device.
Special delivery: unloading North Korean coal in Dandong, China, December 2010
Yet Obama persisted in his outreach to Pyongyang. Under the 2012
Leap Day agreement, the United States promised North Korea aid in
exchange for a freeze of its nuclear and missile tests. Just six weeks
after agreeing to the deal, Pyongyang tested a long-range missile.
The lesson to be learned from all these experiences is clear: yet
another piece of paper will not resolve the United States differences
with North Korea. After all, Pyongyang has already signed and then
unilaterally withdrawn from two International Atomic Energy
Agency safeguards agreements and the Nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty and violated an inter-Korean denuclearization agreement,
the 1994 Agreed Framework, a 2005 joint statement, and both the
2007 and the 2012 agreements.
MONEY FOR NOTHING

While Washington negotiated deal after deal with Pyongyang, Seoul
pursued a program of economic aid and subsidized investment in
North Korea, hoping to draw it into the global economy, sow the
JACKY CH EN / REUTE RS
seeds of capitalism, and gradually liberalize its regime. Between 1991

and 2015, Seoul poured at least $7 billion into Pyongyangs coffers.
The United States contributed an additional $1.3 billion in aid, and
private investment from China, South Korea, and Europe likely contrib
uted billions more. The heyday of engagement, known in South Korea
May/June 2017 67
as the sunshine policy, lasted from 1998 to 2008, under the presi
dencies of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. The cash that the sun-
shine policy provided Kim came just in time to rescue him from a
spiraling economic crisis that had already led to a major mutiny
within the North Korean army.
The failure of engagement was just as inevitable as the failure of
the Agreed Framework. Its premisethat capitalism would spur
liberalism in a despotic statewas flawed. After all, over the past
two decades, both China and Russia have cracked down on domes-
tic dissent and threatened the United States and its allies abroad,
even as they have cautiously welcomed in capitalism. In 2003, even
as it cashed Seouls checks, Pyongyang warned party officials in the
state newspaper that it is the imperialists old trick to carry out
ideological and cultural infiltration prior to their launching of an
aggression openly. For the regime, engagement was a silent, crafty
and villainous method of aggression, intervention and domina-
tion. Given this attitude, its no surprise that Kim Jong Il never
opened up North Korea. The political change that engagement ad-
vocates promised was exactly what he feared the most.
North Korea did allow a few capitalist enclaves to be built. But
while Pyongyang collected the financial windfall, it carefully isolated
the enclaves from the rest of North Korean society. Starting in 2002,
South Korean tourists booked overpriced and closely supervised hikes
along the scenic but secluded Kumgang Mountain trail in North
Koreas southeastern corner. (The tours abruptly ended in 2008, when
a North Korean soldier shot and killed a South Korean woman as she
took an unauthorized morning walk.) And beginning in 2004, South
Korean companies employed thousands of North Korean workers at
the Kaesong Industrial Complex, an inter-Korean factory park a few
miles north of the demilitarized zone. By 2015, the companies in
Kaesong employed over 54,000 North Koreans. (The regime probably
stole most of the laborers low wages.)
In 2016, after North Koreas fourth nuclear test and a missile launch,
Seoul finally conceded that Pyongyang was probably using revenues
from Kaesong to fund its nuclear program and withdrew from the
project. The leading candidate in South Koreas presidential election
this year, Moon Jae-in, has called for the Kaesong complex to reopen
and expand, but a un Security Council resolution passed in 2016 bans
the kind of public and private financial support for trade with North
Korea that kept the industrial complex afloat, absent approval from a un
committee, approval that the United States couldand shouldblock.
Engagement has not changed Pyongyang, but it has often corrupted
the engagers. Take the case of the Associated Press. In 2012, when it
opened a bureau in Pyongyang, it promised to chart a path to vastly
larger understanding, while following the same standards and practices
as ap bureaus worldwide, to reflect accurately the lives of the North
Korean people. Yet it is the ap, not North Korea, that has been compro
mised, by submitting to censorship and broadcasting the regimes pro-
paganda around the world, at the same time overlooking newsworthy
eventssuch as an apartment collapse and a hotel firethat took place
just minutes from its bureau. Meanwhile, the foreign tour agencies that
promote themselves as agents of glasnost have done little more than sup-
ply the North Korean government with hard currencyand, occasion-
ally, hostageswhile shuttling tourists
through a circuit of propaganda specta-
cles. The Pyongyang University of Sci-
U.S. relations with
ence and Technology was founded by Pyong yang will have
Christian missionaries in 2010 to, in the to get worse before
founders words, help North Korea they can get better.
contribute as a member within the
international community. But defectors
have alleged that the regime is using the university to train hackers.
And to avoid expulsion or imprisonment, aid workers in North Korea
must collaborate with the governments discriminatory rationing system,
which favors those citizens it deems the most loyal to the state.
The promised results of engagement have never materialized. Since
the death of his father, Kim Jong Un has accelerated the pace of North
Koreas nuclear and missile tests, stamped out foreign media, and tight-
ened the seals on the countrys already closed borders. He has ex-
panded prison camps and carried out bloody purges, and he even seems
to have sent a team of assassins to murder his half brother in a Malaysian
airport earlier this year. Pyongyangs party elites are richer than they
were ten years ago, but they also live in greater fear of falling out of favor
with the regime and are defecting in greater numbers. Although there is
no wide-scale famine of the type that ravaged North Koreas countryside
in the 1990s, most North Koreans barely scrape together enough to eat.
North Korean society has changed in the past two-plus decades.
Markets now provide people with most of their food, consumer goods,
May/June 2017 69
and information. Yet as the economists Marcus Noland and Stephan

Haggard have documented, those changes have occured despite, not
because of, official efforts. They have been driven by the countrys
poorest and most marginalized people, those who turned to smug-
gling to earn a living, often at the risk of death or life in a prison
camp. The United States and its allies should focus on these signs of
real change, not on brokering yet another deal with the regime that
would only perpetuate the status quo.
GOOD COP, GOOD COP

In 2006, after more than a decade of negotiations and aid shipments,
North Korea conducted its first nuclear test. In response, the un Se-
curity Council approved a series of sanctions resolutions, and the
United States began a halfhearted campaign to use its own sanctions
to pressure North Korea into disarming. Bush and Obama talked
tough after various nuclear tests, but both failed to back up their words
with action. Worse still, continued economic aid and investment can-
celed out much of the effect of the sanctions.
The lax enforcement of sanctions allowed Pyongyang to launder the
money that paid for its nuclear arsenal and perpetuated its crimes against
humanity through banks in the United States. Pyongyang earned much
of that money from illicit activities and mingled dirty funds with
legitimate profits to conceal the dirty moneys origin. As reports from the
un and documents from the U.S. Justice Department confirm, North
Korea continues to pay, receive, and store most of its funds in U.S. dollars.
The U.S. Treasury Department could end this practice, because nearly all
transactions denominated in dollars must pass through U.S. banks.
From late 2005 to early 2007, it did just that. Treasury Department
officials warned bankers around the world that North Korean funds were
derived in part from drug dealing, counterfeiting, and arms sales and
that by transacting in those funds, banks risked losing their access to the
dollar system. To show that they were serious, officials targeted Banco
Delta Asia, a small bank in Macao that was laundering illicit funds for
North Korea, and blocked its access to the dollar system. After that,
other banks around the world froze or closed North Korean accounts,
fearing similar sanctions or bad publicity. Even the state-owned Bank of
China refused to follow the Chinese governments request to transfer
funds from the tainted Banco Delta Asia to other accounts controlled
by Pyongyang. As Juan Zarate, a former U.S. Treasury official, has
explained, the U.S. effort isolat[ed] Pyongyang from the international

financial system to an unprecedented degree. The episode also showed
that when the interests of Chinese banks diverge from those of the
Chinese government, the banks will protect their access to the dollar
system. As Zarate recounted, Perhaps the most important lesson was
that the Chinese could in fact be moved to follow the U.S. Treasurys
lead and act against their own stated foreign policy and political interests.
Yet in early 2007, as part of Bushs effort to denuclearize North Korea,
the Treasury Department returned to its policy of letting most of
Pyongyangs dollars flow freely through
the U.S. banking system. By July 2014,
the Treasury Department had frozen the
China has made a show of
assets of just 43 (mostly low-ranking) voting for each round of
people and entities in North Korea, sanctions, only to flagrantly
compared with about 50 in Belarus (in- violate each of them.
cluding its president and his cabinet),
161 in Zimbabwe, 164 in Myanmar (in-
cluding its junta and its top banks), nearly 400 in Cuba, and more than
800 in Iran. Foreign banks that processed transactions for Cuba, Iran, or
Myanmar risked getting hit with secondary sanctions and multimillion-
dollar fines. The result was that many banks avoided doing business
with those countries altogether. But doing business with North Korea
posed no such risks and so continued freely, until last February, when
Congress passed the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement
Act. The law banned North Korean banks from processing payments
through the dollar system. But because the restriction did not take ef-
fect until last November, it is too early to gauge its effects. It took three
years for strong, well-enforced sanctions on Iran to begin to bite.
Un sanctions look strong on paper, but member states have often failed
to enforce them. China, in particular, has made a show of voting for each
round of sanctions, only to flagrantly violate each of them. Chinas state-
owned companies have sold missile trucks to Pyongyang; its banks have
laundered the regimes money; its government has allowed un-sanctioned
companies and the North Korean hackers who attacked Sony Pictures in
2014 to operate on its soil; and its ports have allowed the transshipment
of arms, materials for North Koreas nuclear and missile programs, and
luxury goods headed to North Koreaall without fear of punishment.
Other countries deserve a share of the blame, as well. Until 2016,
South Korea let approximately $100 million a year flow into Pyong-
May/June 2017 71
yang through Kaesong without questioning how Pyongyang used the

money, despite un resolutions requiring Seoul to ensure that the
North Korean regime would not use South Korean funds for its
nuclear program. The fleet of ships that North Korea uses to smuggle
weapons has flown Cambodian and Mongolian flags; its nuclear and
missile scientists have visited Indian and Russian laboratories; its
slave laborers have toiled at Qatari construction sites, Malaysian
mines, and Polish shipyards; its military has trained Ugandan pilots
and built weapons for Iran and Namibia; its doctors have sold quack
medicines in Tanzania; and its generals have bought Swiss watches. In
testimony before a U.S. congressional committee in 2015, the scholar
Larry Niksch estimated that North Korea receives over $2 billion a
year from various forms of collaboration with Iran alone. The cash
that Pyongyang has gained by disrupting sanctions enforcement may
be modest by global standards, but it has been enough to keep the
regime in power and advance its nuclear program.
TURNING THE SCREWS

North Koreas fourth nuclear test, in January 2016, forced the United
States and South Korea to apply more coherent financial and diplo-
matic pressure. Seoul could hardly ask other governments to enforce
the sanctions when it was violating them itself in Kaesong. Closing
the industrial complex there allowed it to use its substantial diplo-
matic influence to persuade allies to crack down on North Korea.
In Washington, the passage of the North Korea Sanctions and Pol-
icy Enhancement Act forced the Obama administration to designate
North Korea a money-laundering concern under the Patriot Act and
label several North Koreans, including Kim, human rights abusers.
Today, the U.S. Treasury Department has frozen the dollar assets of
about 200 North Korean entities. This number represents progress,
but it does not approach the level of pressure applied to Iran. Nor
does it represent a determined effort to find and freeze North Koreas
money-laundering network. Another un Security Council resolution,
passed in November 2016, aimed to coax wavering states to enforce
un sanctions against North Korea, but absent a threat of secondary
sanctions, Fiji and Tanzania will continue to reflag North Korean
ships, Iran and Syria will continue to buy North Korean weapons,
Namibia will continue to host a North Korean arms factory, and Chi-
nese banks will continue to launder North Korean cash.
In September 2016, in the wake of North Koreas fifth nuclear test,

the United States for the first time indicted a Chinese firm for break-
ing un and U.S. sanctions and seized its Chinese bank accounts.
According to the indictment, the Dandong Hongxiang Industrial
Development Company knowingly helped a sanctioned North Ko-
rean bank launder millions of dollars through U.S. banks. But the
Obama administration stopped short of going after the Chinese banks
that had facilitated the scheme, even though both un sanctions reso-
lutions and U.S. Treasury Department regulations obligated the banks
to investigate and report the companys suspicious activities. That was
a mistake: sanctions will not work if Chinese banks continue to break
them, and Chinese banks will not enforce the sanctions until the
United States begins penalizing violators. Indeed, it was secondary
sanctions that isolated North Korea from 2005 to 2007, helped force
Myanmar to accept political reforms in 2012, and got Iran to return to
the negotiating table in 2014.
BEEN THERE, TRIED THAT

Doves in the United States and South Korea still call for a return to
economic engagement and even a halt to joint U.S.South Korean
military exercises, in the hope that North Korea will reciprocate by
freezing its nuclear program. Yet Obama repeatedly attempted to
negotiate, all for naught. In 2009, then former President Clinton flew
to Pyongyang to meet with Kim Jong Il. He won the release of two
American journalists and invited the North to denuclearization talks,
but Pyongyang declined the invitation. Later that year, Stephen Bos-
worth, the U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, visited
Pyongyang to invite the government back to the negotiating table and
came back empty-handed. In 2013, Obama tried to send Robert King,
the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights issues, to Pyong-
yang, but North Korea canceled the visit at the last moment. Shortly
before the January 2016 nuclear test, U.S. and North Korean diplomats
discussed the possibility of starting negotiations for a peace treaty, but
Pyongyang insisted that its nuclear program would not be on the agenda.
Diplomacy has failed because Pyongyang remains determined to
build its nuclear arsenal. Resuming talks would achieve nothing, as
Pyongyang will not freeze its nuclear and missile programs when it is
so close to attaining an effective arsenal. Any U.S. concessions with-
out irreversible progress toward disarmament would do more harm
May/June 2017 73
than good. Suspending U.S.South Korean military exercises would

degrade the readiness of U.S. and South Korean forces at a time when
North Korean missiles are still aimed at South Korean cities. And yet
Pyongyang will use any resumption of exercises as an excuse to restart
its nuclear reactors and missile tests. It will exploit any enforcement
of un sanctions, any interception of a North Korean arms shipment,
any acceptance of a North Korean defector, or any criticism of North
Koreas crimes against humanity in the same way.
North Korea now says that it will denuclearize only after the United
States and South Korea negotiate a peace treaty with it to formally
end the Korean War. But Pyongyang does not want peace, or even a
peace treaty. It wants a peace-treaty negotiationthe more protracted
and inconclusive, the better. By drawing the United States into a
peace process, the North hopes to blunt criticism of its crimes against
humanity, legitimize its regime, get South Korea to lower its defenses,
induce the United States and the un to lift sanctions, and eventually
get U.S. forces to withdraw from South Korea. Yet Pyongyang would
ultimately rebuff U.S. requests for verification and would meet any
new concessions with yet more demands and more provocations.
NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

The only remaining hope for denuclearizing North Korea peacefully lies
in convincing it that it must disarm and reform or perish. Doing that will
require the United States to embark on an unrelenting campaign of
political subversion and financial isolation. The United States should
begin by fining and sanctioning the Chinese banks that illegally maintain
relationships with North Korean banks and fail to report suspicious
North Korean transactions to the U.S. Treasury Department. The
Treasury Department should also require banks to report North Korean
ownership of offshore assets. The United States and South Korea
should facilitate high-level defections by North Korean diplomats of
the kind that exposed large parts of Pyongyangs money-laundering
network last year. As Fredrick Vincenzo, a commander in the U.S.
Navy, argued in a paper last October, the United States and South
Korea should try to convince elites in Pyongyang that they have a
future in a free, democratic, united Korea, and that in the event of
war, the United States will hold them accountable for any attacks on
civilian targets in South Korea. The United States and South Korea
should also threaten to prosecute those involved in Pyongyangs ongoing
crimes against the North Korean people and promise clemency for
those who mitigate them.
Because Pyongyang has so consistently reneged on its agreements,
the United States must continue to pursue the regimes assets until it has
permanently and verifiably disarmed. Until then, Washington should
work with un aid agencies to allow Pyongyang to buy and import only
the food, medicine, and other goods required to meet the humanitarian
needs of the North Korean people. Washington should release blocked
North Korean funds only in exchange for verified progress toward the
freeze, disablement, and dismantlement of Pyongyangs nuclear and
missile programs; the withdrawal of the artillery that threatens Seoul;
and humanitarian reforms. As long as North Korea remains a closed
society, outside inspectors will find it impossible to verify its disarmament.
Only financial coercion stands any reasonable chance of getting North
Korea to take the path that sanctions forced on Myanmar: incrementally
opening up its society.
Effective sanctions require years of investigation and coalition
building; they cannot be turned on and off in an instant. So this strategy
will take time, determination, and a willingness to accept that U.S.
relations with Pyongyang will have to get worse before they can get
better. The same is true of U.S. relations with Beijing. In response to
tough sanctions on North Korea, China will likely impose import tariffs
on goods from South Korea, Japan, and the United States; increase its
domestic anti-American rhetoric; take aggressive military steps in the
Pacific; and attempt to circumvent the sanctions by sending food and
other goods to Pyongyang. Yet Beijing wants neither a major trade war
nor a military conflict. And Chinese banks and trading companies have
shown that they value their access to the U.S. economy more than their
business with North Korea.
China will be most likely to put diplomatic and financial pressure on
North Korea if it believes that failing to do so will lead the United
States to destabilize the regime on its northeastern border. Accord-
ingly, Washington must make clear to both Kim Jong Un and Chinese
President Xi Jinping that it would prefer the regimes chaotic collapse
to a stable, nuclear-armed North Korea. The missing ingredient in U.S.
diplomacy with Pyongyang has been not trust but leverageand the
willingness to use it. Washington must threaten the one thing that
Pyongyang values more than its nuclear weapons: its survival.
May/June 2017 75
Irans Next Supreme Leader

The Islamic Republic After Khamenei
O
n July 17, 2016, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader,
turned 77. Rumors that he suffers from cancer have circu-
lated for over a decade, and in 2014, the state-run news
agency published photos of him recovering from prostate surgery.
Although Khameneis prognosis remains closely guarded, the Iranian
government is evidently treating his succession with urgency. In De-
cember 2015, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and
a kingmaker, broached the usually taboo subject when he publicly
admitted that a council within the Assembly of Experts, the body
that selects the supreme leader, was already vetting potential succes-
sors. And last March, after new members of the assembly were elected
to an eight-year term, Khamenei himself called the probability that
they would have to select his replacement not low.
The death of Khamenei will mark the biggest political change in
the Islamic Republic since the death of the last supreme leader
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary founding fatherin
1989. The supreme leader is the most powerful person in Iran, with
absolute authority over all parts of the state. A new person in that
position could dramatically alter the direction and tenor of Irans
foreign and domestic policies.
But those hoping for a kinder, gentler Iran are likely to be disap
pointed. Since he took power in 1989, Khamenei has steadily built an
intricate security, intelligence, and economic superstructure composed
of underlings who are fiercely loyal to him and his definition of
the Islamic Republic, a network that can be called Irans deep
SANAM VAKIL is an Associate Fellow at Chatham House and a Professorial Lecturer at
Johns Hopkins Universitys SAIS Europe.
HOSSEIN RASSAM is Director of Rastah Idealogistics and a former adviser on Iran to the
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Superdelegates: the Assembly of Experts meeting in Tehran, March 2012

state. When Khamenei dies, the deep state will ensure that whoever
replaces him shares its hard-line views and is committed to protecting
its interests.
PAST IS PROLOGUE
When Khomeini died, observers considered Khamenei just one of
a handful of possible replacementsand not even the likeliest. A
50-year-old midranking cleric at the time, Khamenei lacked Khomeinis
towering stature. But at a meeting on June 4, 1989, the day after Kho-
meinis death, Rafsanjani, a close confidant of Khomeini, told the
assembly that Khomeini had considered Khamenei qualified for the
job. The group elected Khamenei by a vote of 60 to 14.
Khamenei pledged to maintain stability as supreme leader, saying
in a speech the year he took over, I assure you, Iran continues on
the path of the Islamic Revolution and has not diverged from its prin
R A H E B H O M AVA N D I / R E U T E R S
ciples. In fact, however, he immediately began ushering in dramatic

changes to Irans political system. Given Khameneis middling clerical
rankhe was only an ayatollah and not a grand ayatollah, or marja
his election technically violated the Iranian constitution. So the po-
litical establishment quickly put to a referendum a series of
constitutional revisions that Khomeini had already approved in an
effort to reduce factional tensions after his death. Not only did these
May/June 2017 77
downgrade the required clerical qualifications for supreme leader; they

also increased the positions authority.
The changes eliminated the possibility of a three- or five-person
leadership council should the Assembly of Experts fail to elect a
supreme leader. The word absolute was added before a description of
the supreme leaders authority in the article specifying the separation of
powers, thereby maximizing his control over Irans executive, legislative,
and judicial branches. Another article was rewritten to give the supreme
leader extensive new powers, including the authority to resolve issues
in the system that cannot be settled by ordinary means through a new
constitutional body called the Expediency Council. These modifications
put an unprecedented amount of power in the hands of the new supreme
leader. And in the ensuing years, Khamenei proved determined to use it.
THE RISE OF THE DEEP STATE

Under Khomeini, the Islamic Republic had been divided. On the left
were those who sought to preserve state control over the economy and
impose moderate cultural policies. On the right were those who
frowned at government intervention in the economy but favored a
sharia-inspired domestic policy. Khomeini had held the system to-
gether at the top with the backing of the clerical establishmentthe
original power brokers behind the revolutionwhile giving each side
influence. A shared sense of struggle during the Iran-Iraq War, along
with Khomeinis enormous personal influence and charisma, kept
these tensions from breaking into the open during his reign. But be-
neath the surface, the divisions ran deep.
With the war over and Khomeini gone, factional infighting entered
a new stage, and Khamenei began to gradually consolidate his power.
During Rafsanjanis first term as president, from 1989 to 1993, the
two men coexisted peacefully, with Khamenei cautiously supporting
Rafsanjanis postwar plans for economic liberalization and regional
integration and tolerating his efforts to promote cultural liberaliza-
tion. But opposition to Rafsanjanis liberal agenda began to mount
among his hard-line allies, who in 1992 won a majority in parliament.
Two years later, Khamenei openly sided against Rafsanjani over the
budget, criticizing him for the countrys growing economic malaise
and widespread corruption. Rafsanjani backtracked from his cultural
liberalization agenda and appeased conservatives by offering them
more seats in his cabinet and greater access to economic privileges.
Competition between Khamenei and Rafsanjani would continue up

until the latters death, earlier this year, with Khamenei repeatedly
emerging on top.
Khameneis next problem was gaining authority within the reli-
gious establishment. Khamenei had enjoyed its near-unanimous
backing when he became supreme leader, and in 1994, the Society
of Qom Seminary Teachers, an important clerical and political in-
stitution, proclaimed Khamenei a marja. Still, a number of clerics
strongly questioned Khameneis theological credentials. To counter
his perceived weakness, Khamenei embarked on a decadelong jour-
ney to build religious support. He imposed a state-controlled bu-
reaucracy on top of the clerical structure of Qom that stripped the
ayatollahs of their once cherished financial independence and put
them under his implicit control. And he rewarded his supporters with
political positions and financial privileges that he denied to his critics.
In the process, Khamenei managed to subjugate the Assembly of
Experts, the one and only body with the constitutional authority to
supervise him.
Over the years, Khamenei has also steadily diminished the role
of Irans elected government, concentrating power in his own office
and in state entities that fall outside government oversight. In 2011,
he established a body charged with resolving conflicts among vari-
ous branches of government and appointed its chair. He also created
the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, his personal advisory
board on foreign policy, and set up a parallel intelligence apparatus
that has grown more powerful than the elected governments.
Whereas Khomeini relied on a small coterie of officials to run his
office, Khamenei has placed thousands of his direct and indirect
representatives in government ministries, universities, the armed
forces, and religious institutions throughout the country, all of
whom report to him or his office.
STANDING GUARD
Most important, Khamenei has cultivated a strong relationship with
the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the parallel military force
beside the regular army, loyal to the supreme leader, that is charged
with protecting Irans security and Islamic character. His methods
have largely been financial. Over the past two decades, as Iran has
hesitantly embarked on the path of economic liberalization, Khamenei
May/June 2017 79
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FOREIGN AFFAIRS MAY/JUNE 2017 17-239

has helped businesses affiliated with the irgc purchase state-owned

companies at below-market rates and steered lucrative government
contracts their way.
As a result, the irgc has become a multibillion-dollar commercial
powerhouse that comprises hundreds of companies. These employ
hundreds of thousands of Iranians directly, and millions more depend
indirectly on them for their livelihoods. To name just one example,
the irgc controls the Khatam al-Anbiya Construction Headquarters,
which ranks as the biggest engineering firm in Iran and employs more
than 160,000 people.
As the irgcs economic power has grown, so has its willingness to
assert itself politically. The key moment came in 1999, when thousands
of students took to the streets to protest the closure of a reformist
newspaper. Twenty-four irgc com-
Over the years, Khamenei manders wrote an angry letter to then
President Mohammad Khatami, criti-
has steadily diminished the cizing him for not stopping the dem-
role of Irans elected onstrations and implicitly calling for
government. his resignation. Our patience is at an
end, they wrote, and we do not think
it is possible to tolerate any more if this
is not addressed. It was the first time the irgc had intervened di-
rectly in politics, and the move neutralized Khatamis reform agenda.
Irans deep state had pulled off a soft coup against its government.
From that point on, reformists were on the back foot as the deep
state grew. The trend continued into the presidency of Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who took office in 2005. More government offices and
parliamentary seats came to be held by members of the irgc, and its
associated organizations took control of most newly privatized enti-
ties. Then came the contested presidential election of 2009. After the
Green Movement protests broke out, the irgc oversaw the crack-
down, which further solidified its authority.
What officials in the deep state care most about now is defending
their institutions against what they call a soft war ( jang-e narm)
led by the West. Caught unawares by the 2009 protests, they see
themselves as standing guard against efforts by the United States
and its Western allies to undermine Iran. As the deep state pre-
pares for Khameneis succession, it will look for a candidate who
can help it continue this struggle.
In the hours following Khameneis death, the Speaker of the As-

sembly of Experts will likely convene an emergency session to choose
a successor. Although the process is not written in stone (or in the
constitution), precedent suggests that the assembly will name one of
its 88 members.
Because the members are concerned most with protecting Irans
deep state, they will likely elect a relatively young insider who
seems capable of maintaining stability for a long time to come.
Such a candidate would, like Khamenei, have hard-line ideological
leanings (in terms of both domestic and foreign policy), adequate
but not overarching religious authority, and good executive expe
rience. Most important, he would respect the interests of the deep
state and allow it to operate without interference. These criteria rule
out three oft-mentioned candidates: Hassan Khomeini (Khomeinis
grandson), President Hassan Rouhani, and Mojtaba Khamenei
(Khameneis son). The first two are distrusted by the deep state for
their reformist inclinations, and the third has no popular base of
support. Rather, the next supreme leader is likely to be one of three
men: Sadeq Larijani, Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, or Ebrahim
Raisi.
THE TARNISHED HARD-LINER

The current head of Irans judiciary, Larijani, 56, was born in Najaf,
Iraq, to an influential family: his father, Mirza Hashem Amoli, was a
much-esteemed grand ayatollah, and his four brothers have all risen
to senior posts within the Iranian government. An elected member of
the Assembly of Experts since 1998, Larijani was appointed to the
Guardian Council (which approves candidates for parliament, the
Assembly of Experts, and the presidency) in 2001 and named to his
current position in the judiciary in 2009.
Larijani possesses impeccable clerical credentials. He studied under
his father and another grand ayatollah, Hossein Vahid Khorasani, and
began teaching the highest level of seminary education when he was
just 30 years old. He has written extensively on the philosophical
merits of Islamic government. Indeed, Larijani is best described as a
genuine hard-liner. A member the Society of Qom Seminary Teach-
ers extreme right wing, he opposes the relaxation of social and reli-
gious norms and the liberalization of Irans political system. He also
advocates a zero-tolerance policy toward dissent: at a convention of
May/June 2017 81
judiciary officials in 2015, he spoke of resolute action against domestic

opposition, adding, We cannot exchange compliments with them.
Like the supreme leader, Larijani has a decidedly anti-Western
outlook. After moderates supportive of Rafsanjani and Rouhani made
gains in the February 2016 Assembly of Experts elections, Larijani
issued a statement accusing the moderates of collaborating with Saudi
Arabia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Larijanis un-
compromising stances have put him in conflict with more than a few
members of the political establishment over the years, including
Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani.
But Larijani has demonstrated an absolute devotion to the su-
preme leader. He has never claimed the status of grand ayatollah,
thereby showing deference to Khameneis authority. And he supports
the notion that the Assembly of Experts should exercise minimal
supervision over the supreme leader, an extreme view within the
seminary. Khamenei has described Larijani as a learned, brave, cere-
bral, revolutionary mujtahid [an authoritative interpreter of Islamic
law] and devout scholar and has rewarded him for his loyalty by
promoting him to important positions.
As head of the judiciary, Larijani earned the ire of reformists and
the admiration of hard-liners for meting out severe punishments to
the Green Movement protesters (as well as a place on the eus list of
designated human rights violators). Larijani established good rela-
tions with the irgc, whose intelligence arm has assisted the judiciary
in recent years by detaining and questioning activists. And he demon-
strated his conservative zeal, eagerly attacking Rouhani for supporting
the nuclear deal. Further adding to his influence, Larijani chairs the
board of trustees of Imam Sadiq University, which trains civil officers
for key political positions in the Islamic Republic. His involvement in
such pivotal institutions has given him a deep understanding of Irans
labyrinth of power.
Only one major obstacle stands in Larijanis way: in recent years, his
family has come under attack for corruption. In 2013, Ahmadinejad
played a video in parliament that he claimed showed one of Larijanis
brothers trading on his family connections, and members of parlia-
ment have accused Larijani of transferring public funds to his personal
bank accounts. Although the allegations were eventually debunked,
they could still block Larijanis ascent to Irans top job if members of
the assembly conclude that his reputation is simply too tarnished.
THE CREDENTIALED CANDIDATE

Larijanis predecessor as head of the judiciary, Shahroudi, is an equally
plausible candidate for supreme leader. Born to a family of clerics in
Karbala, Iraq, Shahroudi, 68, immigrated to Iran shortly after the 1979
revolution, where he acted as a go-between for the Islamic Republic
and the Iraqi Shiite opposition to Saddam Hussein. He rose to prom-
inence after Khomeinis death, when Khamenei named him to the
Guardian Council. In 1999, Shahroudi was appointed head of the ju-
diciary, and he served in that position until the end of his term, in
2009. Shahroudi has had a long and close relationship with Khamenei.
He shares the supreme leaders anti-American worldview and hard-
line foreign policy positions, but unlike Khamenei, he has shunned
factional politics.
What distinguishes Shahroudi most are his Islamic credentials.
Shahroudi holds the honorific title sayyid, meaning that he is con-
sidered a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad. When Khomeini
was an exiled lecturer in Najaf, Shahroudi studied under him and
other esteemed scholars. In 2010, Shahroudi declared himself a grand
ayatollah and published a collection of fatwas. With strong links to
parts of the Shiite community in Iraq, Shahroudi enjoys a religious
authority that extends beyond Iran, giving him a leg up over his ri-
vals for supreme leader. But his relationship with the Society of Qom
Seminary Teachers, of which he is a member, has been less success-
ful: in 2012, he tried to start a rival, more inclusive clerical group,
only to receive strong pushback from some fellow high-ranking aya-
tollahs who accused him of trying to sow discord.
As head of the judiciary, Shahroudi showed minimal opposition to
the harsh treatment of dissidents and activists. He made tepid attempts
at reform, which achieved little. His effort to fight corruption in the
judiciary failed to do much. (In fact, the press has speculated that
various associates of his are corrupt.) A 2004 parliamentary law he
championed that was intended to monitor the performance of the
courts and interrogators proved ineffective, as did his attempts to
end solitary confinement and torture. While these efforts appear to
have been genuine, as a regime insider, he never pushed for wide-
scale reform.
Shahroudi has a great deal of experience at the highest echelons of
power and influence. In addition to his time heading the judiciary
and sitting on the Guardian Council, he has served on the Supreme
May/June 2017 83
Council of the Cultural Revolution (which sets policy on Irans social

mores). And in March, his name was circulated as a possible candidate
to chair the Expediency Council (which arbitrates disputes between
parliament and the Guardian Council), a significant promotion. But
Shahroudis influence extends only so far: he does not appear to have
strong ties to military or security officials.
Known for his gentle personality, Shahroudi has largely steered
clear of factional politics. During the 2009 demonstrations, he said
little about the judicial sentences handed down to protesters. He
has maintained ties with both Ahmadinejads circle of hard-liners
and Rafsanjanis more reform-minded crowd. Shahroudis fence
straddling may lead some within the deep state to consider him
unreliable, and it may explain why his two bids to become Speaker
of the Assembly of Experts failed.
THE DEEP STATES PICK

Since early last year, Raisi has emerged as the odds-on favorite to
become Irans next supreme leader. In March 2016, Raisi, 56, was ap-
pointed head of Astan Quds Razavi. A massive charity that is con-
trolled by the supreme leaders office, the organization manages a
shrine that attracts religious pilgrims from Iran and beyond. In this
post, Raisi oversees the organizations sprawling business empire,
which dispenses the charitys financial largess to religious groups and
institutions. Although Raisi is not that well known among the Iranian
public, his new appointment will no doubt increase his profile.
Raisi made his career in the judiciary. In 1980, when he was just
20 years old, he was among the first group of young clerics to enter
the newly established Islamic court system, and he steadily worked his
way up. After heading the group that prosecutes corruption in state-
owned entities, he was named deputy chief justice in 2004. A year
later, according to press reports, Ahmadinejad asked him to lead the
Ministry of Intelligence and Security, but Raisi declined the offer,
preferring to retain the more powerful post in the judiciary. In 2014,
Larijani appointed Raisi attorney general, the countrys top prosecutor.
He distinguished himself most in that position by dragging his feet
on an investigation into a series of acid attacks in 2014 against women
in the city of Isfahan.
Raisis biggest liability is his mediocre religious resum. He is not
a high-ranking cleric, has published little theological scholarship, and
has never taught in top seminaries. Unlike Larijani and Shahroudi, he

is not a member of the Society of Qom Seminary Teachers, nor has he
ever sat on the Guardian Council. Although he studied under Khamenei
in the early 1990s and forged close ties
to the supreme leaders coterie, his
association with other seminarians is
The question of succession
limited. In an attempt to burnish his will force unity among
clerical credentials, he started teaching Irans political factions.
graduate courses in theology at Imam
Sadiq University and, in 2016, began using the title ayatollah. Raisi
also serves as the prosecutor on the Special Clerical Court, the body
that punishes wrongdoing among the clergy, and as a member of the
council that oversees seminaries in Mashhad, Irans second-largest city.
Despite his clerical shortcomings, Raisi enjoys the high esteem
of his fellow members of the Assembly of Experts. He was elected to
the assembly in 2006, and just two years later, his peers voted for him
to replace Rouhani on the bodys presiding board, which acts as a liai-
son with other state institutions. Raisi also serves as secretary of the
committee within the assembly that oversees the supreme leader.
Raisi is nothing if not a hard-liner. He hails from the extremist faction
within the Combatant Clergy Association, a conservative political
group. In 1988, as a prosecutor, Raisi handled the mass executions of
political prisoners, including members of the Mujahideen-e Khalq,
or mek, an exiled group that advocates the overthrow of the Is-
lamic Republic.
Perhaps most important, of all the candidates, Raisi has the strong
est ties to the deep state. Last year, the commander of the irgc paid
a visit to Raisi in Mashhad with other top brass to report on the
groups classified regional activities. In photos of the meeting, Raisi
can be seen sitting in a chair while his guests sit on the floora re-
markable show of respect and confidence for a security establishment
that closely guards its secrets. For ten years, Raisi served on the board
of Setad, a holding company under Khameneis control that has inter-
ests in Irans pharmaceutical, real estate, telecommunications, and en-
ergy sectors and, according to Reuters, has assets of some $95 billion.
Throughout his career, Raisi has maintained the utmost loyalty to
Khomeini and Khamenei. That, along with his conservative bona fi-
des, experience in the judiciary, and political savvy, makes him the
leading candidate for supreme leader. He ticks all the right boxes.
May/June 2017 85
PREDICTING THE UNPREDICTABLE

It is tempting to hope that when Khamenei dies, Irans reformists
will resurface to challenge the hard-liners. But when Rafsanjani
died, so, too, did the possibility of any internal challenge. The ques-
tion of succession will force unity among Irans various political
factions, all of which remain devoted to safeguarding the state above
all else.
The Green Movement, meanwhile, has been neutralized through
violence and intimidation. Khatami has been marginalized since he
was placed under close state supervision in 2009 (and even as presi-
dent, he never truly attempted to challenge the deep state). Rouhani,
who counts as a moderate in todays Iran, is also a creature of the
political system, and when push comes to shove, he, too, will fall into
line, despite his deep disagreements with the hard-liners. Like the
rest of Irans establishment, he has no desire to relive the 2009 pro-
tests or allow the Arab Spring to spread to his country.
As Iran gears up for a leadership transition, it is important to see
the Islamic Republic for what it is, and not what one may hope it can
be. Given the enduring power of its deep state, Iran will likely keep
trying to expand its regional influence. When it comes to relations
with the West, it will probably continue its cautious and pragmatic
strategy, cooperating on some issues (for example, helping with the
fight against the Islamic State, or isis) while refusing to do so on oth-
ers (for example, maintaining its hostility toward Israel). And as long
as the United States upholds its end of the nuclear deal, Iran will
continue to uphold its. But it is foolish to hope that pressure from the
Trump administration will bring about political change in Iran.
Khamenei wants a stable transition, and he is counting on the deep
state to ensure it. In a 1996 speech to a group of irgc commanders, he
divided Iranians into two groups, the avam, masses, and the khavas,
insiders, and emphasized the importance of the latters level of
dedication to the ideals of the Islamic Republic. He went on: Some
fall for the glitter of the material world, and the faithful are only those
who remain committed and loyal. As Khamenei sees it, Irans sur-
vival lies in the hands of his carefully built network of disciples. In all
likelihood, they will continue to safeguard the Islamic Republic long
after he is gone.
SPONSORED SECTION GREECE
Photo: shutterstock
Greece: A New Horizon

Greece is beginning to emerge from its economic crisis, steadily returning to growth, and
exceeding expectations.
Despite a prolonged crisis of public debt, exports and creating a friendlier
Greece has come a long way in the past entrepreneurial environment.
five years and is once again on the rise. This year the OECD predicts that
According to the Greek Minister of Greeces GDP growth will amount to
Economy and Development, Dimitri 2.7%. The countrys progress has left it
Papadimitriou, The Greek economy is in a stronger position: structural reforms
projected to grow dynamically and almost have reduced regulatory burden and
twice as fast as the EU average for the first eased regulation boosting productivity
time since 2006. Dimitri Papadimitriou Emmanouel M. and growth, the enhanced investment law
Minister of Economy Panagiotakis
In the third quarter of 2016, Greeces and Development Chairman & CEO, PPC provides financial incentives for projects
economy developed at its fastest pace in numerous sectors, and increased
since 2008: Real GDP grew by 1.8% annually. The volume of flexibility in the labor market as well as the reduction in the
gross fixed capital formation increased by 12.6%. The export cost of production have led to a more attractive investment and
of goods and services has been expanded by 10.2%. Domestic business environment. Furthermore, the conclusion of the first
conditions improved notably during the 2016 third quarter, policy review with creditors has raised business and consumer
as private consumption increased to its best result since 2007. confidence. Papadimitriou emphasizes, Greek firms are projecting
Papadimitriou highlights that the Greek growth strategy is based investments to hit more than 2 billion Euro in 2017.
around three key pillarsattracting investments, increasing Greeces key sectors include tourism, finance, pubic
In a continuously changing world of energy,

PPC is a stable and innovative power.
www.dei.gr
www.worldfocusgroup.com
GREECE SPONSORED SECTION
administration, education, energy, defense, shipping, real estate and gas markets, and projects such as the TAP gas pipeline, placing
and human health and social work activities. The country Greece in good stead to become the European gateway for natural
offers high quality services and products, as well as logistics and gas. Furthermore, its developments in smart metering and smart-
communication infrastructures, has a highly skilled and talented grid technologies complement this sector.
workforce and its labor costs are highly competitive within the Greeces geostrategic position opens up opportunities for
EU. The Greek government wishes to provide the best possible enhanced pipeline, electricity grid and interconnectivity projects.
environment for foreign investment, and its top priority has The country also has significant generation potential, especially due
become attracting market leading companies and dynamic to its untapped potential in renewables. The government has been
entrepreneurs to stimulate job creation and the national economy. supporting the development of this sector with the advancement
With regards to the energy sector, Greece has become a key of several major investment projects. Key opportunities lie in the
player in the formulation of Western Europes energy development. privatization of state assets, new infrastructure for natural gas
With renewable energy potential including wind, hydro, biomass, transmission, hydrocarbon exploration, and renewable energy
geo-thermal, solar and solar thermal energy, the countrys energy projects, among others.
sector has a higher contribution to gross value added than most Public Power Corporation S.A. (PPC) is the biggest power
EU countries. And the sector is likely to grow, due to state planned production and energy supply company in Greece, currently
privatization of major energy assets, the liberalization of electricity holding assets in lignite mines, power generation, transmission
and distribution. Its portfolio consists of conventional thermal
and hydroelectric power plants, as well as RES units, and accounts
always One step ahead for approximately 68% of the total installed capacity in the
country. Emmanouel M. Panagiotakis, Chairman and CEO says,
Hellenic Petroleum Group, through 36 affiliate
companies, operates throughout the energy sector, The company has a high level of expertise in the engineering,
in rening, petrochemicals, local and international construction and operation of thermal and hydroelectric plants, in
marketing, oil and gas exploration, engineering services, the organization and exploitation of mines and in the development
electricity and natural gas sectors. It supplies around and operation of networks for all voltages. Moreover, PPC has
70% of the Greek market, 30% of which is in retail, via an invaluable knowledge and experience in the management of
1,700 EKO branded stations, while 60% of production
is exported. Operations expand into six countries, all millions of customers of all categories. These assets place PPC
of which are among the strongest SE Mediterranean Group high among the corresponding Balkan and Southeast
players, competing successfully with reneries from Mediterranean electricity companies.
South Europe, Asia and the Middle East. 2015 EBITDA PPCs subsidiary company, Public Power Corporation
stood at 790m, with around 700m expected for 2016. Renewables (PPCR), is the only Greek company active in five
The core of Hellenic Petroleums strategy is the
transformation from a primarily petroleum company forms of renewable energy. With 10% of the market, it works
into an energy provider, therefore these ve main with major energy companies and manufacturers to develop clean
pillars are essential: opportunities exploitation, energy projects. Fotis Vrotsis, CEO of PPCR explains, Our country
globalization awareness, competiveness, people as has rich potential of renewable energy sources, which can lead to
an asset and social awareness. Within this scope, and energy independence and economic growth, while ensuring a
keeping in mind the long continuous relationship with
many companies, any new project opportunities are cleaner environment.
welcomed. Business ties are essential to securing good The company is working closely with the government and the
international relations and nding allies. As Greecethe EU to reach the goal of 40% of production coming from renewables
door to the European energy marketis being upgraded by 2020: We want to take our current portfolio and double it.
into an energy hub, a favorable investment environment We have the opportunity, the willingness and openness to work
must be enhanced. In this way, extrovert collaborations
can be developed, and a successful future for Hellenic both outside and inside the Greek borders with foreign partners
Petroleum assured. and/or investors.
Making our world a better place

Active in the field of renewable energy sources since 1982,
PPCR is the leading name in sustainable power in Greece.
Public Power Corporation

Renewables (PPCR)
www.ppcr.gr
Greek Banking Outlook is Classified as Stable

Moving into stable territory, confidence in Greeces banking system is being restored,
allowing for positive developments in the sector.
After six years of recession, in 2014 the Greek government predicted situation. He says successful means to
a return to economic growth in Greece. Since then, Moodys Investors be able to solve political problems, to give
Service has also revised its outlook on the Greek banking system the country a clean runway so that foreign
from negative to stable and expects improvements in funding and investors, Greek investors and Greek
profitability for Greek banks to follow. citizens know what to expect in the next
Panayotis T. Kapopoulos, Alpha Banks Economic Research two to three years.
Division Manager, emphasizes Greeces progress in the banking Alpha Bankpart of Alpha Bank
sector: The successful recapitalization in November 2015, the Group, one of the largest groups in Greeces
completion of the first review of the program, the reinstatement of Panayotis T. Kapopoulos financial sectoris one of the largest private
Economic Research
the waiver for Greek collateral with ECB, the relaxation of capital banks with a loan market share of 22.9%
Division Manager
controls, the improvement of asset quality and operating profitability Alpha Bank and a deposits market share of 21.2%. As
trends are all signs that we are heading in the right direction. a market leader in business financing, the
He believes the Greek economy showed signs of resilience during bank has a strong brand name in electronic banking, credit cards and
the implementation of the adjustment programs that managed to leasing, and has one of the highest capital adequacy ratios in Europe.
address large macroeconomic and fiscal imbalances and that the Alpha Bank also has a presence in South-eastern Europe via its Group
negative effects of capital controls were not as strong as anticipated. Companies. The bank strives to contribute to the economic recovery
According to the Greek Minister of Finance, Euclid Tsakalotos, it is and development of the country through providing high-quality
now crucial that the Eurozone is successful in addressing Greeces support to its private and business customers.
KX_StatheroSimeioAnaforas_159x108-ENG_ForAffairs.indd 1 3/2/17 1:15 PM

Greeces Oldest Bank Sets the Benchmark

The countrys first bank, the National Bank of Greece (NBG), stands strong amid
economic headwinds.
With a proud history stretching back more for the moment, its more about watching our costs.
than 175 years, NBG was the first bank in We have divestments, which no other Greek bank has, and that
the modern Greek state and is now one of creates capital and releases liquidity. Indeed, we have by far the best
the largest and strongest financial groups liquidity of the four banks, with a loan-to-deposit ratio of c. 89%.
in the country, despite having endured Finally, similar to the other Greek banks, a key challenge is to improve
political, economic and social difficulties in asset quality, which has suffered significantly due to the economic
recent years. crisis, and acts as a drag on the economy.
Despite such challenges, NBG continues to The Princeton educated senior executive highlights how Greece is in
perform solidly in a very testing environment. Paul Mylonas a much stronger position now than a few years ago. Greece succeeded
Deputy CEO
With the successful implementation of its in what many people thought was not possible, which was to manage
National Bank
restructuring plan, it will be well placed to of Greece an internal devaluation at the same time as a large fiscal adjustment,
take advantage of the economic recovery, while being in the straitjacket of a common currency, he explains.
and thus attract investors. Admittedly with a high social cost, as unemployment stands at 25%.
Although the forward-thinking group enjoys a strong presence The Greek economy has stabilized, and were now starting to
in southeast Europe and the eastern Mediterranean and offers a recover. The big question is how quickly we can grow. Clearly, after
comprehensive range of financial products and services to satisfy you hit bottom, youre going to have some growth. The question is
the ever changing needs of businesses and individuals, the domestic whether its going to be sustainable and at high enough rates to reduce
market is now their core focus. unemployment.
NBG is a household name, with a strong presence throughout Specifically, Greece requires rapid growth. Growth of just 1-2%
the many urban and rural areas. Approximately 500 branches per annum is too low. For that, we need strong investment, including
provide a range of financial services and support a network of around from abroad.
1,500 ATMs. So, which are the sectors that investors should focus their attention?
Dr. Mylonas believes Greece has to make more of its natural and
human resources, such as its excellent climate and strategic location as
We have by far the best liquidity of the
a connector of continents.
four banks. Greeces comparative advantages are the services sector, and
Paul Mylonas, Deputy CEO, National Bank of Greece tourism in particular, he says. Not tourism in the narrow sense
of sun, fun and the beach, which is not very profitable. We need
Reflecting the institutions standing and reputation, NBG boasts an high value-added tourism, e.g. providing retirement homes and
impressive 25% share of the national retail banking market and a 25% business conference centers. On the retirement front, a lot of northern
market share in deposits that clearly reflect the confidence of savings Europeans could bring their pensions to Greece. We need to become a
customers, who are its driving force, with a market share of 35%. Florida of Europe.
The banks ambition is only matched by its size, with more than Education could be another source of revenue. We have the Greek
12,000 employees in Greece including those in its insurance divisions diaspora, which has outstanding academics. We could harness that
and a further 10,000 workers based in the Balkans. knowledge into creating universities which attract students from all
NBG Deputy CEO, Paul Mylonas, says, The NBG of today is not the over the world.
NBG of yesterday. The NBG of yesterday was aiming to be a regional He adds: We could also be a transport hub. The Port of Piraeus and
bank and had expanded throughout south-east Europe in the decade the Chinese of Cosco are already creating a new transport link; rather
before the crisis. than going through the Suez Canal and then on to Rotterdam and
We are striving to regain our profitability, which initially includes Hamburg by boat, the alternative is
cost cutting. Once the economy starts to improve, well be able to lend to arrive at Piraeus and go straight to
more and make profits in the traditional way (growing revenues). But Germany by train.
National Bank of Greece ATIONAL BANK

www.nbg.gr OF GREECE
Reigniting the Greek Economy

After years at sea, the fruits of privatization will see Greece emerge as a prosperous and
competitive nation with elevated global standing.
Modern Greece is in the midst of a taken place in this direction. In addition to that, it has taken
successful privatization program, with place with no significant reaction [from the Greeks themselves.]
major investments pouring into many We are implementing the program not only because we are
different sectors as it returns to the obliged to do so, but because we truly believe that it can change
global stage with greater credibility and the structure of the Greek economy in a positive way. It will
resilience. After an unstable chapter in serve as the driving force for attracting foreign investment, along
its history, the country is getting back on with the new superfundThe Hellenic Corporation of Assets
track and opening the markets to attract and Participationswhich is our parent holding company. In
more sustainable funding. The first Lila Tsitsogiannopoulou the last two years, weve promoted many significant projects
Executive Director of
round will include the infrastructure, and managed to maximize the value brought to the Greek State
the Hellenic Republic
energy and real estate sectors, with large- Asset Development Fund to reduce public debt. We are being honest with investors; we
scale construction projects, like ports, (HRADF) give them the real picture and, at the same time, we assure them
airports, the water supply, highways, that we are by their side.
railroads and energy earmarked as priorities. The investment inquiries are flooding in it seems. There
The Hellenic Republic Privatization Program aims to are some important discussions on a series of ongoing energy
capitalize on the nations main strengths: its tremendous projects taking place at present, and within this context, we
tourism potential, for example, and its strategic location on are meeting U.S. companies, Tsitsogiannopoulou says. The
the cusp of east and west with regards to all-important power interest in these projects stems from the aforementioned
pipelines and transportation links. Add in Greeces proximity broader reasons. I consider it our responsibility to highlight
to the Balkans and Central Europe and its densely-populated these aspects more clearly, to make a series of important
cities with high per-capita ratios, and its easy to visualize the strategic choices and, based on these, try to proceed with
enormous inroads that investors can make in helping Greece attracting foreign investors. This does not only apply to the
back to prosperity. U.S. market, but to many others too. We have achieved a very
successful outcome at the port of Piraeus with Cosco, the major
Privatization will serve as the driving Chinese shipping group.
Also on board is Canada, whose PSP Investments is
force for attracting foreign investment. responsible for the operation and management of Athens
Lila Tsitsogiannopoulou
International Airport until 2026. We are currently negotiating
Executive Director of the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund
an extension of 20 years, Tsitsogiannopoulou says. For
me, Canadas participation in Greece is crucial: should we be
Lila Tsitsogiannopoulou is the executive director of the successful with the said extension agreement and we have a
Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), the prospective period of stability ahead, we will set up a tendering
entity driving this privatization initiative. From her office in process for the sale of the 30% stake that is currently held by
Athens, she explains the impact privatization is having on the HRADF. It will be an investment with a guaranteed turnover
economy at large. for the next 25 years.
In contrast to the U.S., the ideology of statism is profoundly The management, operation and maintenance of around 25
rooted in Greek and European traditions, privatization is regional airports and the major Egnatia Odos freeway, which
not particularly popular. Today, however, we have a leftist links Greece to Istanbul and Europe, will also be out for tender in
government for the first time, and within its framework, the future, making a huge impact on the countrys connectivity.
HRADF has promoted and taken through a significant number All of this demonstrates that Greece is
of privatizations at a rapid pace, even though one would have a serious prospect for those willing to
expected that under such a government, nothing would have invest, and the time to invest is now.
Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund

www.hradf.com
Progressive Developments in Greek

Trade and Industry
Growing imports and exports and flourishing industry sectors highlight Greek
progress and the countrys substantial investment opportunities.
Greek exports have once again increased, leading to the improve- with first-class export products made in Greece. According to
ment of the external sectors overall growth. In the third quarter Enterprise Greeces Chairman, Christos Staikos, Foreign Direct
of 2016, exports grew by 8.5%, contrasting to the 2.4% reduction Investment in 2016 more than tripled in comparison to 2015.
in the second quarter. The recent stabilization in oil prices has Greece is now on the turning point towards a new investment
helped support the value of the refined oil products that Greece era, ready to offer new and rewarding business opportunities to
exports. Additionally, strong tourism earnings have improved international investors who will leverage on its geostrategic po-
service exports. Greeces main export partners are Italy, Germany sition, the abundant natural resources, existing brand name in
and Turkey. Imports have also risen from 4.9% to 12.2%, with tourism and natural diet but most of all in the entrepreneurial
Russia, Italy and Germany as its key import partners. and innovative spirit of the Greek labor force.
With an array of investment opportunities to take advantage Greece is also increasingly becoming a key player in innova-
of in this region, companies such as Marfin Investment Group tion, and with a predicted 20,000 new jobs to be created in this
Holdings S.A. provide assistance in making the most of invest-
ment opportunities across a range of sectors.
As the largest investment group in Southeast Europe, its Simply put, innovation is the basis
portfolio includes leading companies in Food and Beverages, of and key to our growth. All our
Transportation, Healthcare, IT and Telecoms, Real Estate and
Tourism and Leisure across the region.
products bear uniqueness and in
It has been listed on the Athens Exchange (ATHEX) since personal hygiene we are certainly
2007. Marfin Investment Groups strengths lie in their scale, market pioneers.
expertise, investment flexibility and financial resources, which Constantin Vitouladitis, Managing Director, MEGA Disposables S.A.
open up the possibility for the identification and exploitation of a
wealth of opportunities. high-value sector, it is expected that this sector will grow at a fast
Enterprise Greece, the countrys investment promotion agency, pace.
supports and promotes Greeces substantial investment oppor- More than simply flourishing, certain Greek companies are
tunities and helps to connect the global business community world-leading in terms of exports, innovation and quality. There
is no better example of this than MEGA Disposables. The quality-
centric company is the leading Greek manufacturer of personal
hygiene products in Europe and operates a 63,000m2 state-of-
the-art facility near Athens. The company is also keen to make
sure every product is of the highest quality and to incorporate
an innovative edge to production. Having followed this theory of
practice for over 35 years and
now exporting to more than
30 international destinations,
it is unsurprising that MEGA
Disposables turnover has in-
creased threefold since 2000.
Known globally as
an innovative brand
builder according to the
companys Managing Direc-
www.marfininvestmentgroup.com
tor Constantin Vitouladitis,
MEGA Disposables is the crea-
tor of the sensitive concept in feminine hygiene, producing the out of 4,585 ships (over 1,000 gt) of 341 million dwt, represent-
first sensitive napkin in the world that offers dryness without ing about 20% of world capacity in dwt and almost 50% of the
irritation. The founder continues, Simply put, innovation is the EU fleet in tonnage terms. Moreover, 770 ocean-going vessels
basis of and key to our growth. All our products bear uniqueness (over 1,000 gt) of 41.3 million gt fly the Greek flag, ranking sec-
and in personal hygiene we are certainly market pioneers. ond in the EU.
Heavily awarded as one of the most dynamic enterprises with- According to Petros Pappas, the CEO of the global shipping
in the European business community, MEGA Disposables has company Star Bulk: Greece offers a unique investment environ-
been the recipient of the ICAP Strongest Companies in Greece ment within shipping due to the availability of highly skilled
Certificate for three consecutive years. Additionally, the Made personnel and a community of ship owners offering unique net-
in Greece award for 2015, the Eurobank and Grant Thornton working opportunities.
Growth Award, and the honorary distinction Ruban dHonneur Star Bulk has 68 vessels and serves its customers worldwide
in the European Business Awards have all recently been bestowed in multiple trade routes, carrying a wide range of cargoes. On
upon this trendsetting and innovative exporter. completion of its new building program the company will own
The shipping industry also contributes significantly to 73 vessels with a total cargo carrying capacity of 8.2 million dwt.
Greeces national economy, as well as to European trade and Star Bulk has the strong support of 15 international banks, and it
global economic growth. Panagiotis Kouroumplis, Minister of strives to continue being one of the most efficient and low cost
Shipping and Island Policy, highlights, The efficiency in the pro- vessel operators.
vision of shipping services and non-negotiable adherence to the This growing Greek in-
international standards on safety and security and environmen- dustry activity opens up vast
tal performance, underline the quality characteristics of Greek opportunities for increased
shipping. Despite the challenging period for Greeces economy, business and partnership
Greek shipping continues to maintain its leading role in the development both nation-
international shipping industry providing maritime transport ally and globally, as well as
services of high quality, he adds, The Greek-owned fleet stead- presents new avenues for in-
www.starbulk.com
ily keeps the first place internationally, with its fleet comprising vestors to explore.
Crest of a Wave Navarino Residences

Proudly flying the flag across the seven seas for Greeces One of the most up-and-coming residential
6,000-year-old shipping industry, the family of George destinations in the Mediterranean
Procopious large and modern fleet links more than 1,000
ports and countless suppliers and buyers in international
economies.
Industry pioneers with an enviable reputation for unique
logistics solutions, the family of George Procopious
successful operating units consist of Sea Traders SA
founded 43 years earlier to manage bulk carriers
Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd established in 1990
to operate tankers and Dynagas Ltd a Liquefied Natural
Gas (LNG) carrier company formed in 2004. Over several
decades, a strong network of customer relationships and
an outstanding reputation for transportation excellence Imagine your garden meeting the sea, and youll start to
among quality-sensitive customers has been developed envisage the paradise of Navarino Residences. Located
across all three of the familys shipping brands. State-of- in Messinia, an unspoilt corner of Greece that is easily
the-art vessels transport bulk and liquid products worth accessible by direct flights, these contemporary free-hold
billions of dollars east and west of the famous Suez Canal, villas form part of the multi-awarded Costa Navarino resort,
meaning Sea Traders, Dynacom, and Dynagas are key the prime sustainable tourism destination in Europe. The
facilitators of global trade. visionary set-up offers the comforts of home combined with
We support European and US imports and exports, even the endless possibilities of the perfect vacation. Residents
during wars and tough times, explains visionary founder can play two signature golf courses, enjoy the finest
George Procopiou. We are like international taxi drivers, homegrown local produce, with exclusive access to estate
going wherever there is demand for transportation. vineyards and olive groves, explore the regions rich cultural
Shipping is cyclical, but we stay ahead with innovation history or simply relax in their garden watching the sun set
and high quality of service, which makes charterers happy over the Mediterranean, living an exquisite dream every day.
and opt for our tonnage. www.costanavarino.com/navarinoresidences
The Greek Pharmaceutical Industry:

A Strong Contributor to its Economy
Greece is developing competitive pharmaceutical products and services.
With a highly skilled workforce and an established Research and establishing a leading position in oncology. Recently, Astellas introduced
Development and manufacturing capacity, which new start-up and spin- a novel hormonotherapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer
off companies are increasingly contributing to, Greeces pharmaceutical (mCRPC).
industry is continually developing competitive, technology-based products New therapeutic areas Astellas is focusing on include ophthalmology
and services. Although to date, the industry has primarily focused on local and muscle disease. Harry Nardis, Managing Director, Greece & Cyprus, at
consumption, it is now increasingly looking to expand into European and Astellas, says, Through close co-operation with all stakeholders we want to
other markets. The continuing shift towards low-cost alternatives and co- create innovative healthcare solutions that will fit the macroeconomic
generics also provides a strong opportunity for the Greek pharmaceutical challenges that Greece is facing while remaining patient-centric. I am
industry, allowing for accelerated growth, increased pharmaceutical confident that this mutually beneficial approach will ensure long-term
exports, and in turn improved efficiency of the Greek healthcare system. growth for Astellas and positive contribution to the Greek economy and
Astellas Pharmaceuticals is committed to the success that comes from society. Furthermore, he emphasizes the need for the necessary steps to be
its ethos of Changing Tomorrow. This ethos expresses the determination taken towards the required regulatory framework that will allow Astellas
of Astellas to satisfy unmet medical needs. Its vision is to be at the forefront to invest in clinical trials in Greece.
of healthcare change to turn innovative science into value for patients. Rafarm, established in 1974, is a vertically integrated European
Innovation is key to the companys success because its sustainable pharmaceutical company specialized in niche areas of sterile products for
growth depends on enhancing its capabilities to deliver innovative drugs. Ophthalmology and Nephrology. With a proven track record of more
Astellas is a leader in urology and transplantation/immunology and is than 100 products marketed across Europe, Australia and Canada, it is
expanding its presence in the international market often in partnerships
with global leading companies. Aris Mitsopoulos, Rafarms Vice-President
Astellas Pharma Inc., based in Tokyo, Japan, is a company says, We are one of the major European development companies for
dedicated to improving the health of people around the world generic Ophthalmic and Nephrology products with a strong direct
through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical presence in the local market and strategic alliances in the international
products. We focus on Urology, Oncology, Immunology,
market place. The company is moving beyond the development of plain
Nephrology and Neuroscience as prioritised therapeutic areas
while advancing new therapeutic areas and discovery research generic products towards projects with incremental value, covering those
leveraging new technologies/modalities. We are also creating niche therapeutic areas with a complete portfolio of common generics
new value by combining internal capabilities and external while at same time offering generic plus solutions differentiating Rafarm
expertise in the medical/healthcare business.
from competition and fostering
GR/NPR/0117/0002
Astellas is on the forefront of healthcare change to turn

innovative science into value for patients. brand awareness.
Rafarm is on the way to entering
the US market with a target to file
A key player 2 to 3 products per year. Having
in the countrys just invested in building its new
pharmaceutical R&D facility in order to expand
www.astellas.com industry
its capabilities to develop more
www.pharmathen.com
challenging products, it is looking
A century of contribution to the

pharmaceutical commerce
Pharmaservice
Pharmaceutical Wholesaler S.A.
www.pharmaservice.gr
Tel : +30 210 5157 251
forward to capitalizing on its expertise in select areas.

Pharmaservice is one of the largest full-range pharmaceutical wholesalers setting the gold standard
in Greece, specialized in trading, storing, promoting and distributing
a wide range of medicines and OTC products. The company plays a
fundamental role within the countrys pharmaceutical supply chain and it
serves more than 1,500 pharmacies across the country. Pharmaservice has
managed to remain competitive, despite the increase in several taxes, which
led many companies in the sector struggling to remain profitable. Over the
last years, the company has been included in Fortune Greeces ranking of
the top 30 fastest growing companies in Greece and in Incs ranking of
the top 5,000 growing companies in Europe. Pharmaservice sees a lot of
room for expansion and improvement in the sector. It is always open to
discussing new domestic and international partnership opportunities, as it
sees exports as a key area within the sector with vast potential.
Pharmathen, another key pharmaceutical company in the country,
focuses on the development and marketing of pharmaceuticals, and has Eleusis, Attica, elected as European Capital of Culture for 2021
a strong position in generics. The company, with its three key pillars of Encompassing the entire metropoli-
investmentinnovation, internationalization and investmentfocuses tan area of Athens, the Attica region
its activities on the development of pharmaceutical products up to their is an administrative area of 3.8m
people that generates about 40%
distribution, and plans to double its revenue in the next five years.
of Greeces GDP through various
Investments in this sector in the coming years are expected to be driven industrial, financial and commercial
by the export potential for Greek generic pharmaceutical manufacturers, activities.
significant developments in Research and Development start ups, and As the political, administrativeand fi-
through partnerships with the tourist industry for the development of nancial center, the Attica regionholds
the key to the countrysfuture. The Rena Dourou
specialized medical tourism.
region is the maininternational gate- Regional Governor
Infrastructure development is also a key contributor to the growth of way and a bustling transport hub,
Greeces economy. According to VINCI Concessions Country Manager, with the Port of Piraeus being the largest seaport in the
Panayotis Papanikolas, There is no doubt that infrastructure is a leverage country.
for Greeces economy, and gives people from outside of Athens the chance Given the tough macroeconomic challenges facing the
nation, Greece requires more than ever before strong
to participate in the economy. VINCI Concessions designs, finances,
leaders with vision and the determination to push through
builds and operates public facilities infrastructure under public-private reforms to boost efficiency, competitiveness and maxi-
partnerships throughout the world. Over the years, the global group has mize its abundant resources.
participated in some of Greeces most iconic and technically complex Since her appointment in late 2014 as Regional Gover-
infrastructure projects, such as the Rio-Antirio bridge in the Gulf of Corinth. nor of the Attica region, Rena Dourou has embarked on
a mission to streamline public administration and turned
the fight against red tape and corruption into her mantra.
We are building a new administration model with-
out red tape, corruption and ineffectiveness, says
Governor Dourou. Its the only way we can take advan-
tage of Atticas numerous assets like tourism, culture
and investment opportunities to create a new, and more
appropriate, business environment.
We want to reinvent regional entrepreneurship and are
trying to overcome old structures and obsolete mind-sets.
We strongly believe in the significant role of regions in
the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the Attica re-
gion employs a strategy based on targeted synergies with
important stakeholders, such as the Athens Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and innovative new busi-
ness entities from the Athens Startup Business Incubator
(THEA). We create an ecosystem conducive to new forms
of entrepreneurship, smart specialization and innovation.
This is the only way to achieve growth in an intelligent,
inclusive and sustainable manner.
www.patt.gov.gr
Investment in Real Estate on the Rise

As the Greek economy recovers, international buyers are returning to Greece.
During the boom period in Greece, which reached its peak
in 2007, commercial buildings increased in capital value by
almost 40% while rents grew over 20%. However, after the crisis
hit in 2008, Greek real estate experienced a severe downturn
characterized by falling market values. During this period, rental
values fell by an estimated 30% in all sectors, whilst capital
values became progressively uncertain. This turn resulted in
low foreign investment into this sector for a number of years.
However, as the Greek economy begins to recover, buyers are
returning to Greece. Torontos Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.,
Colony Capital LLC of Los Angeles and the UKs Invel Real Estate
Partners, among others, have begun to buy commercial property
assets.
NBG Pangaea is one of the most active real estate
investors, having invested over 600m in the last four years,
Charilaos Trikoupis Rio Antirio Bridge, Gulf of Corinth
predominantly in Greece. The company is one of the leading
commercial real estate investment companies in the country its portfolio located in prime urban areas throughout Greece
with a presence in Southern Europe. The Groups real estate and selectively positioned in other key markets in the region
portfolio consists of more than 330 commercial properties. NBG such as Italy, NBG Pangaea boasts a high quality, high yielding,
Pangaeas CEO, Aris Karytinos says, With more than 80% of diversified portfolio with predictable cash flows driven by high
occupancy levels, long term lease tenures and a strong tenant
base. He adds, NBG Pangaea focuses on commercial assets
Hellenic Railways: with good real estate fundamentals, a market sector in Greece
on the right track where prices have been stabilizing in the past year, also showing
The only way is upthis is the motto that characterizes an upward trend in selective cases. This part of the Greek real
the action and procedures of Hellenic Railways (aka estate market has been experiencing an increase in the number of
OSE) since 2016. transactions (sales) and in the demand for take ups, a trend that
In fact, 2016 was a turning point for the railway with is expected to be strengthened by the supply of real estate related
two important landmarks: first, the opening of the to non performing loans.
rail market; second, a thorough incorporation of EC
directives into Greek legislation. NBG Pangaeas primary
As a result, a new approach to planning and managing goal is to continue its growth
the railway infrastructureand, consequently, the whole strategy to create value for its
systemhas been established by the new management investors, become a leading real
of OSE and all members of the railway group: equal estate investment company in
treatment to all railway undertakings, dictating a new
path for future relationships and equalizing the level of Investing the region, and to increasingly
service with incentives, among others. in infrastructure attract institutional investors
This pro-active approach is likely to undo negative and funds into Greece.
connotations associated with the railways in recent
years. More importantly, it clears the way for the
implementation of large-scale renovation projects,
for ever-greater synergies between the tourist and
industrial sectors, and it enables the railway to make
a major contribution to wider efforts to restructure the
economy and society.
Hellenic Railways S.A.

Kostas N. Petrakis, CEO
[email protected]
Brazils Never-Ending
Corruption Crisis
Why Radical Transparency Is the
Only Fix
Brian Winter
S
ix decades ago, long before the Brazilian Senates August 2016
vote to impeach President Dilma Rousseff and remove her from
office, one of the most beloved leaders in the countrys history
was besieged by scandals of his own. President Getlio Vargas, a stocky,
gravelly voiced gaucho from Brazils deep south, had granted new
rights, including paid vacation, to a generation of workers in the 1930s
and 1940s. But after Vargas returned to power in 1951, one of his top
aides was charged with murder, and Vargas himself faced allegations
that the state-run Bank of Brazil had granted sweetheart loans to a
pro-government journalist. I feel I am standing in a sea of mud,
Vargas lamented. After a late-night cabinet meeting on August 24, 1954,
failed to solve the crisis, and with numerous generals demanding his
resignation, Vargas withdrew to his bedroom, grabbed a Colt pistol,
and shot himself through the heart.
Ever since, corruption scandals have continued to routinely upend
Brazilian politics. In 1960, the mercurial Jnio Quadros won the presidency
by campaigning with a broom, vowing to sweep away the thieving rats
in Brasliaonly to quit after eight tumultuous months in office. Following
a 1964 military coup, widespread disgust at the corruption of civilian
politicians helped Brazils generals hold on to power for two decades. In
1992, Fernando Collor de Mellothe first president to be elected fol-
lowing the restoration of democracywas impeached over allegations
that he and members of his inner circle had embezzled millions.
BRIAN WINTER is Editor in Chief of Americas Quarterly. Follow him on Twitter @BrazilBrian.
May/June 2017 87
Brian Winter
Last August, Rousseff, the countrys first female president, became

the latest Brazilian politician to see her career wrecked in part by
revelations of graft. The technical grounds for her impeachment were
that she had manipulated the federal budget to conceal the scale of the
countrys mounting deficits. In reality, however, the impeachment was
driven by public anger at a president who had overseen the countrys
worst recession in more than a century and by the exposure of a
multibillion-dollar corruption scandal that made Vargas sea of mud
look like a tiny pond. Operation Car Wash, as the investigation has
come to be known, uncovered massive
Brazilian democracy is at graft involving government officials,
business leaders, and the state-controlled
its most vulnerable point oil company, Petrobrasthe board of
since the return of civilian which Rousseff herself had chaired
rule three decades ago. before becoming president in 2011.
Although Rousseff is not accused of
personally profiting from the corruption
scheme, prosecutors say that illegal proceeds were used to finance her
electoral victories in 2010 and 2014 (Rousseff denies any wrongdoing).
Several operatives from her Workers Party, including its former
treasurer, Rousseff s media guru, and a former senator, have been
jailed on charges of money laundering and other crimes.
Rousseff s successor, President Michel Temer, took office hoping to
turn the pageto no avail. Some within Temers centrist Brazilian
Democratic Movement Party (pmdb), including several members of
Temers cabinet, were also allegedly involved in the corruption at
Petrobras. Just weeks after Temer took office, his minister of trans-
parency, Fabiano Silveira, was forced to resign after a secret recording
was leaked in which he appeared to advise the president of the Senate,
another member of the pmdb, on how to avoid prosecution. In a Febru-
ary poll, 65 percent of Brazilians surveyed said they thought Temers
government was just as corrupt (or more so) than Rousseff s. Just ten
percent approved of his governments performance, placing Temers
own political survival in jeopardy.
With public anger on the rise and the economy still stagnant,
Brazilian democracy is now at its most vulnerable point since the
return of civilian rule three decades ago, and it risks lapsing into long-
term dysfunction or the soft authoritarianism currently sweeping
the globe. The struggles of Rousseff and Temer, like those of their
Brazils Never-Ending Corruption Crisis
predecessors, illustrate why its time for Brazil to take a radically new
approach to preventing corruption. Only by renouncing their spe-
cial privileges and committing to genuine reform will Brazils poli-
ticians be able to ward off disaster and regain the publics trust.
WASHED AWAY
The history of corruption in Latin America has generally been one of
dramatic headlines but few consequences for the guilty. While he was
in office, Carlos Menem, Argentinas president during the 1990s,
proudly drove a bright red Ferrari that he had received as a gift from
a businessman. Its mine, mine, mine! he crowed. Menems brazen
behavior reflected many politicians belief that they would be shielded
from public anger, either by economic growth or by pliant institutions.
In Mexico, for example, the long-dominant Institutional Revolutionary
Party controlled the courts and the media, shielding the countrys
presidents from career-ending scandals.
Only in Brazil has corruption toppled one government after another.
Some analysts blame Brazils continental size and its strong regional power
centers, which have produced a large number of political partiesat one
point, Rousseffs coalition in Congress included more than 20. The parties
themselves have weak ideological identities and little power to enforce
loyalty among their members, which often compels presidents to bargain
with legislators individually to get laws passed. This, in turn, creates strong
incentives for politicians to resort to bribery to help forge alliances.
Other scholars argue that Brazil is no more crooked than its regional
peers, pointing to surveys such as Transparency Internationals
Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks Brazil as less corrupt than
Argentina and Mexico. Brazilian corruption is simply more likely to
be detected, they claim. Brazil has an especially vigorous free press, an
independent and well-resourced judicial branch, and a large and
historically marginalized working class that, amid levels of inequality
that are high even by Latin American standards, is almost always
ready to turn on its leaders at the drop of a hat.
Whatever the truth, in recent decades, Brazils systemic corruption
has become more unsustainable. The countrys 1988 constitution granted
extraordinary autonomy to Brazilian prosecutors, leaving them free to
investigate and imprison members of the business and political elite
with little fear of reversal or retribution. As in other parts of the
world, technological changes, including the rise of Facebook and Twitter,
May/June 2017 89
Brian Winter
have made it easier for watchdogs to collect evidence, publish allegations,

and mobilize anticorruption demonstrations. And the economic boom
Brazil enjoyed in the first decade of this century, fueled in part by
Chinese demand for its commodities, created a new, educated middle
class that demands better governance from its leaders. A decade ago,
unemployment and hunger ranked at the top of most voters concerns;
today, corruption does, especially among voters under 40.
These factors have come to a head in the Car Wash scandal. In
2013, Brazilian police discovered an illegal money-transfer business
hidden behind a gas station. In exchange for a plea bargain, one of the
money launderers they arrested, a man named Alberto Youssef, told
investigators about his role in a scheme that had funneled billions of
dollars from Petrobras and other corporate giants to Brazilian politicians
and their associates. Since then, a team of prosecutors has built evi-
dence based on additional plea bar-
gains, as well as an extensive web of
Only in Brazil has domestic and international bank rec
corruption toppled one ords. Many of Brazils most famous
government after another. tycoons have been jailed, including the
oil magnate Eike Batista, the seventh-
richest person in the world in 2012, according to Forbes magazine.
The prosecutors, most of whom are in their 30s and 40s, come from
Brazils first generation to know nothing but democracy in their
adult lives and value the rule of law over deference to authority.
Meanwhile, Brazils old political establishment has consistently
underestimated both the tenacity of the prosecutors and the support
they enjoy from the Brazilian public. On taking office, the 76-year-
old Temer could have appointed aides who were untainted by the Car
Wash scandal. Instead, he assembled an all-male, all-white cabinet
(despite the fact that more than 50 percent of Brazilians define
themselves as black or mixed race) that included numerous politicians
already under investigation for corruption. The idea, it seems, was
that by assembling an all-star team of experienced, if unpopular,
politicians, Temer would be able to pass legislation, including a
reform of Brazils overly generous pension system, that would restore
investors confidence. Once economic growth returned, Temer and
his aides believed, public anger over corruption would recede.
Perhaps predictably, this approach has backfired. Amid a relentless
torrent of new allegations stemming from the Petrobras case and other
Youre fired: Rousseff in Braslia after being stripped of the presidency, September 2016
investigations, five more ministers from Temers cabinet, in addition to
Silveira, have resigned or otherwise lost their jobs. In December, large
street demonstrations broke out after Brazilian politicians gutted an
anticorruption bill. The political instability has hampered Temers
ability to execute his legislative agenda and has scared off many domestic
and foreign investors, and most economists now expect Brazils economy
to barely grow in 2017. The only public figure in Brazil whose approval
rating consistently stands above 50 percent is Srgio Moro, the 44-year-
old judge overseeing Operation Car Wash.
With Temers term set to end in December 2018, it is probably too
late for him to relaunch his government in a more transparent mold.
But his successor will have a golden opportunity to show that he or
she has learned the lessons of Operation Car Wash. Only by prioritizing
the fight against systemic corruption and making transparency a
guiding principle of government policy can Brazils politicians regain
the support of their constituents, inspire confidence among investors,
AD RIANO MACHADO / REUTE RS
and end the countrys crippling economic crisis. This strategycall it

radical transparencyholds the countrys best hope for recovery.
THE BEST DISINFECTANT

Radical transparency must start at the very top, and it requires deep
reforms as well as symbolic measures aimed at regaining the publics
trust. For starters, Brazils next president should name a cabinet that is
May/June 2017 91
Brian Winter
completely untouched by the scandals of recent years. To reinforce his

or her commitment to bringing new figures into national politics, the
president should reserve half of all cabinet positions for women and a
smaller quota for people under the age of 40, following the lead of
Colombia, which introduced this very policy in the early years of this
century. The government should also publish statements listing each
ministers assets and recent income on the presidencys official website.
But to significantly reduce corruption, Brazilian lawmakers must
make deeper political reforms. The most obvious is to abolish Brazils
so-called privileged standing, a law under which only the Supreme Court
can judge senior government officials, including the president, cabinet
ministers, and members of Congress, for alleged crimes. This provision,
which has its origins in nineteenth-century Portuguese colonial rule, was
designed to shield high-level public servants from politicized verdicts by
lower courts. But given that the Su-
There is more support now preme Court deals with more than
100,000 cases a year, trials of politicians
for sweeping political usually drag on for several yearsif they
change than at any point in occur at all. The result is near impunity
a generation. for the estimated 22,000 people who
currently enjoy some version of this
privilege, which helps explain why far
more executives than politicians have been imprisoned so far in the Car
Wash scandal. Withdrawing it, which would require Congress to amend
the constitution, would dramatically improve the odds of corrupt politi-
cians going to jail without inordinate delays.
Brazils next president could complement this change by steering
greater resources toward the Federal Police; the Ministry of Trans-
parency, Supervision, and Controls; the Superior Electoral Court;
and other bodies that investigate and prosecute graft and fraud. Brazil
already has some of the regions most stringent anticorruption legisla-
tion, including a 2011 freedom-of-information law, a 2013 law governing
private-sector conduct, and a 2016 law mandating greater financial
transparency at state-run companies such as Petrobras. But as the wry
Brazilian expression goes, Algumas leis no pegam (Some laws dont
quite catch on), usually because the government fails to provide the
resources to enforce them. According to their employees union, for
instance, the Federal Police are so strapped for cash that they have
only one agent for every 200 cases; the union has asked that the size
of the force be doubled to keep up with demand. Other countries

shaken by Operation Car Washthe investigation has followed the
money beyond Brazils borders into Colombia and Peruhave already
taken similar steps: in February, Perus president announced that he
would triple funding for anticorruption prosecutors.
If the government wishes to crack down on the kind of corruption
uncovered at Petrobras, it should focus on places where the private
and public sectors intersect. That means publishing all the terms, bids,
and results for procurement and infrastructure projects and instituting
harsher fines for companies when the projects go overtime or over
budget. One proposal that Congress is considering would oblige gov-
ernment entities, including state-run companies, to dedicate at least
ten percent of their advertising budgets to educating the public about
the dangers of corruption and publicizing outlets for whistleblowers.
This is a good idea, and the government should also work with
Congress to draw up a new framework for campaign finance, following
the Supreme Courts 2015 decision to abolish corporate donations
altogether until a more transparent system could be created.
Finally, the next government should work with Congress to pass
legislation that would slash the number of political parties, and with it
the opportunities for corruption. As of December 2016, 28 parties
were represented in Brazils Congress, and applications were pending
with electoral authorities to create an additional 52 parties. Introducing
a minimum threshold of votes to enter Congress could reduce the
number of major parties to, say, eight or ten, without unduly restricting
political diversity.
CLEANING UP
Many Brazilian politicians dismiss these proposals as unworkable in
the current political climate. They insist that the true source of public
discontent is not corruption but the economy, which has contracted by
almost ten percent on a per capita basis since 2014. The government
should therefore save its political capital, the argument goes, for pass-
ing legislation that will boost job creation, simplify its notoriously
Byzantine tax code, and better integrate Brazilthe most closed major
economy in Latin Americawith the rest of the world.
Its true that recapturing the dynamism that lifted millions of Brazilians
out of poverty is critical. But the government would be reckless to
dismiss the publics outrage over corruption. In a 2016 survey, only
May/June 2017 93
Brian Winter
32 percent of Brazilians polled agreed that democracy is always the best

form of governmenta 22-percentage-point plunge from the previous
year. If popular dissatisfaction with the political class remains so high,
Brazilian democracy will face an existential threat. The risk is not a
military coup; that era in Brazil ended with the Cold War. Instead,
the public could be seduced by an authoritarian civilian leader who
pushes Congress aside and restricts democratic freedoms. Alternatively,
the country could remain trapped in a cycle in which unpopular politi
cians persistently resist transparency, even as new scandals continue
to erupta recipe for long-term stagnation.
To be sure, an anticorruption drive would carry some risks. Presidents
who pledge to stamp out corruption often resort to demagoguery and
try to drive investigations themselves instead of empowering indepen
dent judicial institutions. Authorities must ensure that law enforcement
agencies spend any additional funds effectively. After all, Brazil already
spends more than its regional peers on the judicial sector, but too much
of the money goes toward lavish salaries and perks for judges, even as
police complain they cant afford to fill their cars with gas. Finally, efforts
to increase transparency often end in disappointment. Governments
should thus manage public expectations; the goal is to significantly
reduce corruption, not eliminate it altogether.
Nonetheless, Brazils leaders have an extraordinary opportunity.
There is more support now for sweeping political change than at any
point in a generation. Polls show that Brazilians are convinced that
corruption caused the worst crisis of their lifetimes. In a nationwide
survey at the end of 2016, 96 percent of respondents said they wanted
Operation Car Wash to continue no matter the cost; 70 percent said
they felt confident that, thanks to the investigation, corruption would
decline in the future. Over the past 35 years, Brazil has defeated
authoritarianism, hyperinflation, and hunger. Adding systemic cor
ruption to that list would represent a historic accomplishment.
In the final months before Rousseffs impeachment, as the Car Wash
scandal erupted and the economy collapsed, she commissioned secret
internal polls to gauge her political standing. Rousseff was surprised to
learn that the most popular figure in Brazil was not her or Luiz Incio Lula
da Silva (known as Lula), her much-loved predecessor. It was Pope Francis,
whose example of austerity and integrity resonated at a time of enormous
moral crisis, and who, in 2015, had called on the Vatican to operate
with absolute transparency. Brazils next leader should take note.
How to Maintain
Americas Edge
Increase Funding for Basic Science
L. Rafael Reif
I
n February 2016, scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (mit) and the California Institute of Technology, or
Caltech, joined with the National Science Foundation (nsf) to
share some remarkable news: two black holes 1.3 billion light-years
away had collided, and the resulting gravitational waves had been heard
by the twin detectors of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory (ligo). This was the first time such wavesripples in
the space-time continuum caused by the violent acceleration of massive
objectshad ever been directly observed. Albert Einstein had predicted
such waves a century ago, but it was long doubted that instrumentation
sensitive enough to confirm their existence could ever be created. It
took more than four decades of work by a vast team of scientists to
make the impossible possible.
Ligo has revealed thrilling new insights into the cosmosbut it
has given the world some gifts of immediate practical value as well,
which help illustrate the benefits of such investments in basic science.
Over the years, the ligo project has provided a crucial training
ground for thousands of top young scientists and engineers, developing
talent that has energized not only American universities but also
American businesses. Because ligo researchers had to measure displace-
ments of mirrors one-10,000th the size of a proton, they were required
to invent an array of breathtakingly precise new tools, including ultra-
stable high-powered lasers, ultrasmooth mirrors mounted on ultraquiet
vibration-isolation platforms, the worlds largest ultrahigh-vacuum
system, and software algorithms for extracting tiny signals from noisy
L. RAFAEL REIF is President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
May/June 2017 95
L. Rafael Reif
data. Some of these technologies are already beginning to be used in

commercial manufacturing. And if history is any guide, ligo will lead
to important innovations far down the roadjust as 1940s experiments
with nuclear magnetic resonance led to the mri scanner, a 1950s effort
to create clocks to measure how gravity warps time made possible
gps, and research in the 1960s and 1970s gave the world the Internet.
Ligo, in short, is extraordinary. But it is also typical, because it
highlights the system the United States relies on to achieve great
scientific discoveries: public support
for university-based research, with large
It often takes decades for investments of time, cash, and patience.
fundamental research to This support flows through federal
yield practical applications. agencies such as the nsf, the National
Institutes of Health, and the Defense
and Energy Departments. In the case of ligo, its observatories were
funded by the nsf and designed, constructed, and run by its university
partners, with more than $1.1 billion spent over 40 years.
Since World War II, the U.S. government has been the worlds
biggest supporter of potentially transformative sciencewhich is a
key reason why the country continues to have the highest share of
knowledge- and technology-intensive industries in the world,
amounting to nearly 40 percent of the economy. It often takes decades
for fundamental research to yield practical applications, and those
applications can be unpredictable (such as the cyclotrons devised for
experiments in particle physics in the 1930s being put to use in cancer
treatments now). Yet it is out of such attempts to expand human
knowledge that powerful new businesses grow, with technology titans
such as Apple and Google building world-class companies on the
backs of technologies emerging from federal investments in research.
By now, one successful way to cultivate economic growth in the
United States is clear: Government provides the resources for basic
science, and universities supply the talent, the training, and the com-
mitment. The results inspire innovation, private investment, and
further research and development, generating new products, new indus-
tries, new jobs, and better lives on a large scale.
Indeed, a short walk from my office, I can see the physical embodi-
ment of this process in Cambridges Kendall Square, which has been
transformed in recent decades from an aging industrial landscape.
First, it became an informal gathering place for young scientists from
How to Maintain Americas Edge
The truth is out there: a simulation of black holes, released at a conference in February 2016
mit, Harvard, and Bostons great medical centers excited by molecular

medicine and gene engineering, then the site of academic research
centers focused on cancer, genomics, neuroscience, and biomedicine
and a hotbed for start-ups in the biosciences. Now it is a home for
large companies as well, in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, information
technology, and energy. Once dominated by shuttered candy factories
and empty pavement, Kendall Square has been reborn as the biotech
capital of the world, one of the most innovative square miles on the
planet. Much of the work on the government-funded Human Genome
Project took place in the area, and according to the Battelle Memorial
Institute, a nonprofit research-and-development organization, the
$14.5 billion spent on that effort between 1988 and 2012 has helped
generate an estimated $1 trillion in economic impact and more than
S I M U L AT I NG EX T R E M E S PAC E T I M ES
four million job-years of employment.

Yet despite the remarkable success of the U.S. innovation economy,
many players in both government and industry have been pulling
back from the types of bold long-term investments in fundamental
science that could seed the great companies of the future. The entire
innovation ecosystem is becoming more shortsighted and cautious.
And by failing to invest sufficiently in basic research today, Washington
risks creating an innovation deficit that may hobble the U.S. economy
May/June 2017 97
L. Rafael Reif
for decades to come. This concern has become acute since the White
House released its budget blueprint, which proposes crippling cuts
to science funding. Now more than ever, the fate of this crucial national
investment depends on Congress.
THAT USED TO BE US
While other nations are vigorously investing in scientific discovery,
in recent years, total research-and-development spending in the
United States, both private and public, has stagnated. Between 2008
and 2014, the entire U.S. research-and-development enterprise grew
by just over one percent annually in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Most concerning, however, is the decline in federally supported
research. Between 2009 and 2015, federal spending on research and
development of all kinds decreased by nearly 20 percent in constant
dollars. Universities suffered the longest downturn in federal support
since the nsf began keeping track in 1972, and that has caused a great
deal of promising work to stalljust when groundbreaking new tools,
such as the ligo detectors and CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, have
opened up enormous opportunities for new discoveries.
Such underinvestment in research and development is not merely
a temporary effect of the Great Recession. The federal government
now spends a significantly lower percentage of gdp on research than
it did in the 1960s and 1970s and has particularly stinted research in
essential fields such as the physical sciences, mathematics and com-
puter science, and the environmental sciences. The result has been a shift
over time in the source of the majority of research-and-development
investment from the federal government to industry.
Industrial research and development is necessary and valuable, of
course. But with some exceptions, it tends to focus on relatively narrow
questions directed at specific commercial outcomes. Only about six
percent of industry funding goes to basic researchto projects
designed to expand humanitys store of knowledge rather than pass
tests of immediate usefulness. This is understandable. Basic research
is curiosity-driven, and the short-term returns from it are often not
obvious. Yet we cannot do without it, because it is from such funda-
mental explorations that the world gets the startling breakthroughs
that create entirely new industries.
Unfortunately, the United States great corporate laboratories, such
as Bell Labs and DuPont Central Research and Development, once
hubs of both fundamental and applied science, are largely a thing of

the past. As global competition intensified and firms lost their market
dominance, funding such labs came to be seen as an extravagance.
Since 1971, moreover, U.S. corporations have been required to report
their earnings quarterly, a change that has made it more difficult for
managers to focus on long-term results.
There is, however, a true bright spot in the innovation economy. A
new generation of digital industry leaders is now funding applied
research into various blue-sky technologies, such as low-cost space
rockets, autonomous vehicles, holographic computing, Internet-
beaming drones, and flying cars. Some are even taking on long-term
biomedical challenges, such as devising interventions for aging. But
however impressive such efforts are, one must not mistake the fruit
for the tree it grew from. Even Astro Teller, the head of so adventurous
a corporate laboratory as Alphabets X, home of the fabled moon-
shots, notes that basic research is outside his purview. The word
basic implies unguided, Teller told The New York Times in 2014,
and unguided is probably best put in government-funded universities
rather than industry. Yet many of Xs futuristic projects, Teller
explained, rely on the academic work of the last 30 or 40 years.
Universities have struggled to do their part. Over the past 40 years,
they have doubled the share of academic research-and-development
spending they provide themselves, to its highest level ever. They have
found the money to invest steadily in new facilities, they continue to
train the nations young technical talent, and they continue to drive
economic development, gaining ever more patents, licensing new
technologies, and incubating start-ups. But budgets are tight, and
university resources are too limited to sponsor basic research any-
where near the scale of ligo.
LESS MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS

Why is U.S. government funding for fundamental scientific research
drying up? In part because sluggish economic growth since the end
of the last economic downturn has made it difficult to justify funding
projects with no projected returns for decades to come. There is also
a sense that other countries will reap the profits of U.S. investment
in basic research without helping cover the costs. And there is a concern
that, in combination with globalization, innovation is contributing to
the erosion of jobs.
May/June 2017 99
L. Rafael Reif
But the process of scientific progress and technological change will

not stop because Washington refuses to participate. Moreover, the
growth of innovation clusters such as those around Silicon Valley and
Kendall Square suggests that there is indeed a home-court advantage
to those places where discoveries are made and that businesses like to
stay physically close to the source of important ideas. In such places,
start-ups linked to university-based research stay in the neighborhood
to absorb talent and knowledge and are often joined by larger, more
established firms.
And although an increasing percentage of Americans worry that
science is forcing too much change on them too quickly, the route to
rising incomes ultimately runs through
new technologies. In 1987, the mit
All six of the 2016 professor Robert Solow was awarded
American Nobel laureates the Nobel Prize in Economics for an
in science and economics economic growth model that proposed
were immigrants. that rising real incomes are largely
dependent on technological progress.
Throttling back on investment in basic
research is a way to increase economic insecurity, not reduce it, and
threatens to shrink the countrys horizons in several ways.
To start with, the United States lead in technological innovation
could fall to global competition, just as the countrys domestic manu-
facturing base did, with major geopolitical and economic conse-
quences. Cutting-edge science is equally vital to national security
and the economy. Tellingly, other nations are already starting to catch
up. As the United States research-and-development spending stag-
nated between 2008 and 2013, Chinas grew by 17 percent annually,
and South Koreas, by nine percent. Chinese nationals now publish
almost as many peer-reviewed scientific journal articles as Americans
do, and the quality of Chinese research is rising rapidly. (For as long
as the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been monitoring how
many patents have been granted to universities, mit has ranked as
the single institution with the greatest number, followed by other
distinguished U.S. universities, such as Stanford and Caltech. In
2013, Beijings Tsinghua University suddenly leapt ahead of Stanford.)
Further cuts in research budgets will discourage the cultivation of
desperately needed young scientific and engineering talent. This is not
merely an academic issue, because a high proportion of U.S. science and
engineering Ph.D.s go into industry. As a result, universities have a sig-

nificant role in training the most sophisticated talent for U.S. businesses,
and a crucial feature of U.S. graduate education in science and engineer-
ing is the involvement of students in cutting-edge academic research.
Projects such as ligo show graduate students that they can pursue the
boldest of ideas, leading to further innovation down the road.
Continuing to starve basic research will also hamper the countrys
ability to attract top global talent, adding to the discouraging effect
of recent restrictions on immigration. U.S. universities have long
been a magnet for the worlds most brilliant people, as both students
and faculty. All six of the 2016 American Nobel laureates in science
and economics were immigrants, for example, as have been 40 percent
of the American Nobel laureates in chemistry, medicine, and physics
in this century. At mit, more than 40 percent of both the graduate
students and the faculty were born outside the United States
including the Venezuelan-born author of this article. As research
funding dries up, so, too, will the influx of foreign talent.
Fewer federal dollars will also reduce the diversity of the entire
U.S. research enterprise. While philanthropic support is important
and can focus resources and attention on particular areas of research
at particular institutions in ways that may yield rapid results, it cannot
substitute for the broad base of federal investment. The National
Institutes of Health alone spends over $30 billion on medical research
every year; imagine how many relentlessly generous billionaires it
would take to match that. Furthermore, although some philanthropic
funding goes to university research, the majority of it is directed to
nonprofit research institutes, which, unlike universities, are not re-
freshed by a steady stream of new students and junior faculty. Because
universities are forever young, they are uniquely creative.
Declining public investment in science is linked to another emerging
threat: a less patient system of private investment to carry discoveries
through to commercialization. From the 1960s through the early 1990s,
federal investments in education and research produced well-trained
young scientists and engineers who generated brilliant ideas. Big
companies with big internal research-and-development operations
would then hire many of those people, develop their ideas, and deliver
them to the marketplace. When I joined mits electrical engineering
faculty in 1980, that model was working well, translating discoveries
from university labs across the country into market-ready innovations.
May/June 2017 101

L. Rafael Reif
By the 1990s, however, as American corporations curtailed their

own internal research operations, scientists and engineers were left
with only one avenue to bring their innovations to market: seek risk
capital and launch a start-up. Venture capital investment is typically
not patient, however, and it has gravitated disproportionately to dig-
ital and biotechnology start-ups that offer a quick path to profitability
or to the potentially outsize rewards of blockbuster therapeutics.
Venture capital investment has not worked as well for many tangible
products based on new science and technology, including sorely
needed new energy technologies, which may require capital-intensive
infrastructure and involve novel manufacturing processes that will
take time to develop.
DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

The future of U.S. scientific, technological, and economic innovation
depends on increased federal funding for basic research and increased
effort by the private sector to move new technologies into the market-
place. In 1964, at the height of the Cold War and the space race, federal
spending on research and development came to 1.9 percent of gdp.
Today it is less than half thateven in the face of threats such as ter-
rorism, cyberattacks, climate change, and potential pandemics. Given
these challenges and the ratcheting up of international competition, a
recommitment to U.S. leadership in science and innovation is critical.
Something more has to be done, also, to ensure a steady progression
from ideas to investment to impact. Many universities have created
incubators and accelerators to support start-ups emerging from their
laboratories. At mit, we are particularly concerned about the fate of
tough technologies in fields such as clean energy, manufacturing,
robotics, biotechnology, and medical devicespromising ideas that
could potentially yield game-changing answers to enormous challenges
but whose commercialization is too time- and capital-intensive to
attract risk capital or strategic investment from a large corporation.
To help such technologies reach the marketplace, we recently
launched an enterprise we call The Engine. It will support up to 60
start-ups at a time by offering them affordable space near the mit
campus, access to specialized equipment and technical expertise, and
patient capital through a venture capital investment arm relying on
private funds. If this and similar projects elsewhere succeed, they
could unleash waves of innovation that could benefit everyone.
The benefits of public investment in science and technology, finally,

must be broadly shared by the citizens who shoulder the cost, and the
economic and social disruptions triggered by the resulting advances
must be addressed with systems that offer continuous training and
retraining to American workers throughout their professional lives.
Increasingly smart and nimble machines will eventually radically alter
the workplace. Stopping such technological progress is impossible
so rather than wish the problem away, the public and private sectors
should focus on helping people adapt successfully.
As soon as the world heard the first chirp signaling a gravitational
wave emanating from black holes 1.3 billion light-years away, it was
clear that the ligo project was a triumph and would usher in a new
kind of astronomy that would reveal new truths about the universe.
Ligo shows that the United States still knows how to do truly bold
science and do it well. But the breakthroughs today were built on the
hard work and generous funding of past generations. If todays
Americans want to leave similar legacies to their descendants, they need
to refill the research pipelines and invest more in the nations scientific
infrastructure. If they dont, Americans should not be surprised when
other countries take the lead.
May/June 2017 103

The Boom Was a Blip

Getting Used to Slow Growth
Ruchir Sharma
T
he global recovery from the Great Recession of 2009 has just
entered its eighth year and shows few signs of fading. That
should be cause for celebration. But this recovery has been an
underwhelming one. Throughout this period, the global economy has
grown at an average annual pace of just 2.5 percenta record low
when compared with economic rebounds that took place in the decades
after World War II. Rather than rejoicing, then, many experts are now
anxiously searching for a way to push the world economy out of its
low-growth trap. Some economists and investors have placed their
hopes on populists such as U.S. President Donald Trump, figuring
that if they can make their countries economies grow quickly again,
the rest of the world might follow along.
Given how long the global economy has been in the doldrums,
however, its worth asking whether the forces slowing growth are
merely temporary. Although economists and business leaders complain
that a 2.5 percent global growth rate is painfully slow, prior to the
1800s, the worlds economy never grew that fast for long; in fact, it
never topped one percent for a sustained period. Even after the
Industrial Revolution began in the late eighteenth century, the average
global growth rate rarely exceeded 2.5 percent. It was only with the
massive baby boom following World War II that the global economy
grew at an average pace close to four percent for several decades. That
period was an anomaly, howeverand should be recognized as such.
The causes of the current slowdown can be summed up as the
Three Ds: depopulation, deleveraging, and deglobalization. Between the
end of World War II and the financial crisis of 2008, the global economy
RUCHIR SHARMA is Chief Global Strategist and Head of Emerging Markets at Morgan
Stanley Investment Management and the author of The Rise and Fall of Nations: Forces of
Change in the Post-Crisis World.
The Boom Was a Blip
was supercharged by explosive population growth, a debt boom that

fueled investment and boosted productivity, and an astonishing in-
crease in cross-border flows of goods, money, and people. Today, all
three trends have begun to sharply decelerate: families are having
fewer children than they did in the early postwar years, banks are
not expanding their lending as they did before the global financial
crisis, and countries are engaging in less cross-border trade.
In an ideal world, political leaders would recognize this new reality
and dial back their ambitions accordingly. Instead, many governments
are still trying to push their economies to reach unrealistic growth
targets. Their desperation is understandable, for few voters have accepted
the new reality either. Indeed, many recent elections have punished
establishment politicians for failing to do more, and some have brought
to the fore populists who promise to bring back the good times.
This growing disconnect between the political mood and the eco
nomic reality could prove dangerous. Anxious to please angry publics,
a number of governments have launched radical policy experiments
designed to revive economic growth and increase wages, or to at least
spread the wealth more equitablyeven though such plans are likely
to fail, since they often rely on heavy spending that is liable to drive
up deficits and spark inflation, leading to boom-and-bust swings.
Even worse, some leaders are trying to use nationalismby scape
goating foreigners or launching military adventuresto divert the
publics attention from the economy altogether.
Depopulation, deleveraging, and deglobalization need not hurt every
one; in fact, they will benefit certain classes of countries, companies,
and people. To respond properly to these trends, governments need to
plan for them and to manage public expectations. So far, however, few
leaders have shown the abilityor even the inclinationto recognize
the new economic reality.
MORE OR LESS
The emergence of the Three Ds represents an epochal reversal in the
story of global development, which for decades prior to the Great
Recession was a tale of more: more people, more borrowing, and more
goods crossing borders. To understand why the plot took such an
unexpected turn, its helpful to consider the roots of each trend.
Depopulation was already under way prior to the economic melt
down. During the postwar baby boom, the annual rate of growth in
May/June 2017 105

Ruchir Sharma
the global population of working-age people nearly doubled, from one

percent in the mid-1950s to over two percent by 1980. This directly
boosted economic growth, which is a simple function of how many
people are joining the work force and how rapidly their productivity
is increasing. By the 1980s, however, signs that the boom would fade
had begun to appear, as women in many countries began to bear fewer
children, in part because of the spread of contraception. As a result,
the annual growth rate of the global working-age population started
to fall in stages, with a sharp drop after 2005. By 2016, it had dropped
all the way back to just one percent. In the United States, growth in
the working-age population declined from 1.2 percent in the early
years of this century to just 0.3 percent in 2016the lowest rate since
the un began recording this statistic in 1951.
The un now predicts that worldwide, population growth rates will
continue to decline through 2025 and beyond. Such long-term fore
casts, which are based on a relatively simple combination of birth and
death rates, have an excellent track record. And the economic impli
cations of that trend are clear: every percentage point decline in working-
age population growth shaves an equally large chunk off the gdp
growth rate.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the baby boom provided a massive boost
to the global economy, as did increases in productivity rooted in
large measure in technological advances. As productivity growth
slowed in the subsequent decades, however, easy money started to
take its place as an economic spur. Beginning in the early 1980s,
central banks began to win the war on inflation, which allowed them
to lower interest rates dramatically. Until that point, borrowing
and economic growth had moved in tandem, as is the norm in a
capitalist system; for decades, global debt had grown in line with
global gdp. But as falling interest rates lowered the cost of borrow-
ing to near zero, debt surged from
100 percent of global gdp in the
late 1980s to 300 percent by
2008. Although some of
this bor rowed money
was wasted on specula
tion, much of it went to
fuel business activity and
economic growth.
The Boom Was a Blip
Then came the global financial crisis. Regulations issued in its wake
limited the risks that U.S. and European banks could take both in
their domestic markets and overseas. In 2008, global capital flows
which are dominated by bank loans
stood at 16 percent of global gdp.
Today, those flows hover at around two
Few leaders have shown
percent of global gdpback to where the abilityor even the
they were in the early 1980s. Meanwhile, inclinationto recognize
many private borrowers and lenders the new economic reality.
have been paralyzed by debt phobia,
which has prevented new lending despite
the fact that interest rates are at record lows. The only country where
borrowing has continued to grow rapidly is China, which did not develop
a fear of debt because it remained insulated from the financial crisis in
2008. But globally, since interest rates can hardly drop any further, a
new debt boom is extremely unlikely.
Globalization is not likely to revive quickly, either. The last time
that cross-border flows of money and people slowed down was in 1914,
at the onset of World War I. It took three decades for that decline to
hit bottom, and then another three decades for flows to recover their
prewar peaks. Then, in the early 1980s, many countries began to open
their borders, and for the next three decades, the volume of cross-
border trade doubled, from the equivalent of 30 percent of global gdp
in 1980 to 60 percent in 2008. For many countries, export industries
were by far the fastest-growing sector, lifting the overall growth rate
of the economy.
In the wake of the recession, however, consumers have cut back on
spending, and governments have started erecting barriers to goods and
services from overseas. Since 2008, according to the Centre for Economic
Policy Researchs Global Trade Alert, the worlds major economies have
imposed more than 6,000 barriers to protect themselves from foreign
competition, including stealth measures designed to dodge trade
agreements. Partly as a result of such policies, international trade has
fallen back to the equivalent of 55 percent of global gdp. This trend is
likely to continue as populists opposed to globalization move to further
restrict the movement of goods and people. Witness, for example, one
of Trumps first moves in office: killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(tpp), a 12-nation deal that was designed by Trumps predecessor to as-
sure that American-style free-market rules would govern trade in Asia.
May/June 2017 107

Ruchir Sharma
WELCOME TO THE DESERT OF THE REAL

Depopulation, deleveraging, and deglobalization have become potent
obstacles to growth and should prompt policymakers in countries at
all levels of development to redefine economic success, lowering the
threshold for what counts as strong annual gdp growth by a full per-
centage point or two. Poorer countries tend to grow faster, because
they start from a lower base. In countries with average annual incomes
of less than $5,000, such as Indonesia, a gdp growth rate of more than
seven percent has historically been considered strong, but that number
should come down to five percent. For countries with average annual
incomes of between $5,000 and $15,000, such as China, four percent
gdp growth should be considered relatively robust. For developed
nations such as the United States, with average annual incomes above
$25,000, anything over 1.5 percent should be seen as healthy.
This is the new reality of economic success. Yet few, if any, leaders
understand or accept it. Given the constraints imposed by the Three Ds,
the economies of China, India, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, and the
United States are all growing at what should be considered healthy rates.
Yet few citizens or policymakers in those countries seem satisfied with
the status quo. In India, where the economy is now growing at a pace
between five and six percent, according to independent estimates, elites
still fantasize about hitting eight or nine percent and becoming the next
China. The actual China, meanwhile, is still taking on ever more debt in
an effort to keep its growth rate above six percent. And in the United
States, Trump has talked of somehow getting the already fully developed
U.S. economy to grow at four, five, or even six percent a year.
Such rhetoric is creating an expectations gap. No region of the world
is growing as fast as it was before 2008, and none should expect to. In
2007, at the peak of the pre-crisis boom, the economies of 65 countries
including a number of large ones, such as Argentina, China, India,
Nigeria, Russia, and Vietnamgrew at annual rates of seven percent
or more. Today, just six economies are growing at that rate, and most
of those are in small countries such as Cte dIvoire and Laos. Yet the
leaders of many emerging-market countries still see seven percent
annual gdp growth as the benchmark for success.
THE POPULIST MOMENT

Whats wrong with ambition? some might object. The answer is that
pushing an economy to sustain speeds beyond its potential is like
The Boom Was a Blip
persistently gunning a cars engine: it may sound cool, but eventually

the motor will burn out. And if buyers are promised a muscle car but
find themselves stuck in a broken-down family sedan, they will turn
on the dealer.
In the last year, numerous leaders once considered rising stars, such
as Mexicos Enrique Pea Nieto and Italys Matteo Renzi, have seen
their approval ratings tumble and, in
Renzis case, have been forced out of Pushing an economy too
office after their reform plans failed to
deliver as promised. Normally, incum hard is like persistently
bent politicians enjoy an advantage on gunning a cars engine: it
election day, but not during antiestab sounds cool, but eventually
lishment revolts, such as the one occur-
ring now. In 2009, in the 50 most the motor burns out.
populous democracies, the governing
party won 90 percent of elections at the national level. Since then,
the success rate of ruling parties has fallen steadily, to just 40 percent
last year.
The beneficiaries of this shift have often been populist and nation
alist leaders who have cast doubt on the central tenets of the liberal
postwar order. Figures such as Trump, Prime Minister Theresa May
in the United Kingdom, and the right-wing leader Marine Le Pen in
France have encouraged people to question the so-called Washington
consensusthat is, the belief that there is an intrinsic link between
global free markets and rising prosperitywhich was an article of
faith in the United States and other Western countries for decades.
Many of these same politicians promise more muscular leadership
in the name of promoting their countries interests, and publics have
shown themselves to be increasingly open to such appeals. The World
Values Survey polled citizens of 30 large countries in the late 1990s
and then again in the first five years of the current decade, asking,
among other things, whether having a strong leader who does not
have to bother with parliament and elections would be good for their
country. In 25 of the surveyed countries, the share of people who said
they would prefer authoritarian rule to democracy rose. The figure
increased by 11 percentage points in the United States, 24 percentage
points in Russia, and 26 points in India, where the number now stands
at a stunning 70 percent. Even more striking, the decline in support
for democracy was sharper among young people than among the old.
May/June 2017 109

Ruchir Sharma
Many leaders are responding to this shift by embracing protectionist

policies and by intervening more aggressively in markets. One of the
main reasons for British voters surprising 2016 decision to leave the
eu was a popular desire, whipped up
by populists, to retake control of
Diverting attention from national borders and trade policy. Now
economic troubles by the Washington consensus is under at-
blaming foreign cabals and tack even in Washington. In the name
enemies within is a trick as of his America first agenda, Trump
has begun publicly demanding that
old as politics. private companies build with U.S.-
sourced materials and threatening to
change the tax code to explicitly favor exports over imports. This
willingness to scrap postwar economic orthodoxy has extended into
emerging markets as well. Although Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi was once a darling of the free-market crowd, he has recently
begun to defy its preferences, most recently by deciding to withdraw
86 percent of the paper currency in circulation in India, virtually
overnight, as a way to punish wealthy tax dodgers.
Such policies stand little chance of accomplishing the larger goal:
bringing back a period of broad prosperity. Indeed, populist exper
iments will likely do more harm than good, in part by threatening
the victory in the war on inflation that governments won in the
1980s and have sustained ever since, as tighter central bank policies
have combined with intensifying international competition to put a lid
on prices. If countries pursue insular, protectionist policies, decreased
foreign competition will likely remove that lid. Populist proposals to
boost growth by increasing government spending could also push
prices up, especially if the economy is already running close to full
capacity, as it is in the United States right now. That is why expectations
for U.S. inflation have risen markedly since Trump took office.
Populist spending might indeed drive up growth for a year or so,
but it would come at the expense of higher deficits and rising inflation.
That would force central banks to raise interest rates faster than
expected, triggering a downturn. Trumps call for significant new spend
ing on roads and bridges has proved broadly popular, but the timing
is all wrong.
The U.S. economy is already in the eighth year of a recovery, which
means the need for stimulus spending has passed. And the Trump
The Boom Was a Blip
plan would push the U.S. budget deficit, which is already at unprec
edented levels, even higher. At this stage, Washington should be building
a surplusmoney it will need when the next recession inevitably
hits. But the idea of saving for a rainy day seems quaint at a time when
disgruntled voters are demanding an economic revival. The U.S.
economy is already growing in line with its potential rate of 1.5 to two
percent, yet most politicians seem to share the publics disappointment
and eagerness for more.
WINNERS AND LOSERS

The slowdown in global flows of goods, money, and people has affected
more than just national politics and policymaking: it has also rearranged
the international balance of economic power. Before 2008, emerging
economies sought to export their way to prosperity. But that model has
become less effective as the competitive edge once enjoyed by major
exporters, such as South Korea and Taiwan, has begun to shift to
countries that can grow by selling to their own large domestic markets,
such as Indonesia or Poland.
At the same time, countries that got ahead by specializing in out
sourced labor will probably see their advantage dwindle. India has
seen cities such as Bangalore emerge as incubators of the countrys
rising middle class, spurred by opportunities at global outsourcing
firms. The same goes for the Philippines, where call centers did not
exist at the turn of the millennium but have exploded into a $22 billion
industry employing more than one million people. As globalization
retreats, however, outsourcing is likely to decline, and Trumps tax
plans, designed to bring companies and jobs back to the United States,
will accelerate this shift.
Economic advantages are also moving away from big multinationals
and toward smaller, domestically focused companies that rely less on
exporting goods and importing or outsourcing labor. As borders tighten
and it becomes harder to fill positions with foreign employees, workers
in developed economies such as the United States will gain more
bargaining power. For much of the postwar era, the share of U.S.
national income that went to workers declined, in large part because
many companies cut labor costs by shifting jobs abroad. Meanwhile,
the share of national income going to corporate profits rose steadily, to
a peak of ten percent in 2012. Since then, however, the corporate share
has started to drop and the workers share has begun inching up.
May/June 2017 111

Ruchir Sharma
Border restrictions and aggressive government intervention in

markets are nonetheless likely to slow the global economy. Reduced
competition tends to undermine productivity, one of the key drivers
of growth. As leaders attempt to grab a greater share of the global
pie for their countries, their combined efforts will wind up shrinking
the pie itself.
IM A SURVIVOR
So what will happen when populists and nationalists fail to deliver
faster growth? One might expect everything to come crashing down
around them. In fact, history shows that canny populists can survive
such outcomes. But the tactics they tend to use often stoke international
instability, as the cases of Russia and Turkey demonstrate.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin came to power in 2000,
his basic promise was that he would make Russia great again by
reviving its economy. Thanks largely to rising prices for Russias top
exports, oil and gas, average annual income increased tenfold over the
next decade, to the equivalent of $15,000. Putin reaped the benefits,
basking in unprecedented levels of public support. But in 2014, energy
prices collapsed, setting off a recession, and average annual income
fell to just $9,000. Putin suddenly seemed politically vulnerable.
To deflect attention from the downturn, Putin embarked on a
series of foreign adventures: invading and annexing Crimea, fomenting
a pro-Russian insurrection in eastern Ukraine, and launching a mili
tary intervention to support the embattled Assad regime in Syria. By
playing the nationalism card and casting himself as the hero of a
campaign to restore Russian prestige and power, Putin has avoided
suffering the fate of so many other establishment politicians. Despite
Russias continued economic struggles, his approval rating remains
above 80 percent.
Like Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also well
into his second decade in power despite the fact that he presides over
a sputtering economy. Erdogans ideas about economics are distinctly
unconventional: he has claimed, for example, that raising interest
ratesa standard antidote to inflationis in fact a cause of inflation.
Turkey faces a crippling mix of rising deficits, accelerating inflation,
and slow growth. Yet the latest polls put Erdogans approval rating at
close to 70 percent, in part because Erdogan has managed to convince
many Turks that the United States and the eu are the masterminds of
The Boom Was a Blip
a conspiracy to weaken Turkey. When military officers launched a

coup attempt against him last year, Erdogan claimed that the plot was
written abroad, and members of his government accused the cia
and the fbi of involvementan accusation that Washington denies
but that most Turks believe, according to polls.
This trickdiverting attention from economic troubles by launch-
ing foreign adventures or by scapegoating foreign cabals and enemies
withinis as old as politics. But Putins and Erdogans success with
such tactics will only make other leaders more willing to take similar
measures when they find themselves unable to deliver on promises of
renewed prosperity. The resulting wave of nationalist antagonism and
aggression will stoke geopolitical tensions, especially at a time when
Washingtons commitment to upholding the liberal international order
seems to be wavering.
THE NEW NORMAL

Not all the effects of the Three Ds will be negative; the trends will
produce some winners, such as countries whose economies are less
reliant on international trade and firms that deal primarily with
domestic markets. A slower-growing, less globalized economy might
also raise middle-class wages in developed economies, which might in
turn halt or even reverse the increase in income inequality that many
nations have experienced in recent decades. Such gains will prove
fleeting, however, if leaders and policymakers refuse to accept the
new normal.
There are some steps that governments can take to dampen the
impact of the Three Ds. Although attempts to reverse the long-term
decline in birthrates, such as offering women baby bonuses, have
proved largely futile, governments can offer more women and elderly
people incentives to enter or reenter the work force. They can also
open doors to immigrants. But doing so will be at best politically
impractical at a time of rising nativism. And working-age populations
are falling so sharply that women, senior citizens, and immigrants can
make up for only a small portion of the looming labor shortage.
The same basic math applies to deglobalization: at a time when
global trade talks have stalled and regional trade deals are dying on
the vine, countries can try to boost trade by cutting bilateral deals
but this will only partly counteract the global anti-trade trend. And
the rise of populists will continue pushing mainstream politicians to
May/June 2017 113

Ruchir Sharma
be wary of any trade deals: before beginning her 2016 presidential

campaign, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called
the tpp the gold standard for trade deals; once primary season started,
she withdrew her support for the agreement in response to anti-trade
populism in the Democratic Partys base.
The obstacles to reviving the postwar debt boom are even more
daunting. The financial crisis of 2008 led to new regulations and new
restrictions on lending and made big banks an easy target for populists
of all stripes, limiting the room to maneuver for policymakers and
financial firms alike. And global debt, although stable, is already
quite high, at around 300 percent of gdp. That means that, even
if policymakers wanted to do so, it would be politically difficult
and perhaps economically destabilizing to trigger a new period of
debt expansion.
If political leaders cant summon the words or the courage to explain
this slow-growth world to a demanding public, they can at least avoid
overpromising on growth and eschew unorthodox policy experiments
to achieve it. Some traditional economic policies, such as well-designed
tax cuts and deregulation, could help increase productivity and lift
growth rates at the margin. But the gains from such policies are unlikely
to add up to much. No country will be able to avoid the constraints on
growth posed by the Three Ds; the time has come to prepare for life
in a post-miracle world.
REVIEWS & RESPONSES
To prevent a return to the darkest

days of the war on terror, U.S.
officials and personnel must refuse
to carry out any illegal orders they
receiveeven from the president.
Tortured Souls Mind Games

Antonio Taguba and Scott Cooper 116 Yuen Foong Khong 139
Democracy on the Brink Asia in the Trump Era

Suzanne Mettler 121 Bilahari Kausikan 146
DAMI R SAGO LJ / REUT E RS
Libyan Ghosts Recent Books 154

Robert F. Worth 127
Hack Job
Emily Parker 133
Soon after his inauguration, Trump

Tortured Souls indicated that in crafting policy on
interrogations, he would defer to the
counsel of his defense secretary, the
The Crimes of the War on retired Marine Corps general James
Terrorism Mattis, who opposes the use of torture.
Im going with General Mattis, Trump
Antonio Taguba and said in an interview with David Muir
of abc News. But do I feel it works?
Scott Cooper Absolutely, I feel it works.
The administration has continued to
send mixed signals on the subject. In
Consequence: A Memoir late January, The New York Times revealed
BY ERIC FAIR. Henry Holt, 2016, the existence of a draft executive order
256 pp. that would have reversed the Obama
administrations 2009 decision to shutter
Enhanced Interrogation: Inside the Minds the secret black sites where the cia
and Motives of the Islamic Terrorists tortured detainees and to limit inter
Trying to Destroy America rogators to the nonabusive techniques
BY JAMES MITCHELL WITH BILL contained in the U.S. Army Field Manual.
HARLOW. Crown Forum, 2016, 320 pp. The Trump administration denied the
Times report and soon circulated a dif
P
resident Donald Trump has made ferent draft order on detainees, which
it clear that he believes the United did not call for such policy changes.
States should consider using torture But the episode left a distinct impres
when interrogating terrorist suspects. sion that although Mattis and other
Last February, during the Republican senior administration officials might
primary campaign, he pledged that if oppose torture, Trump is hardly its
elected, he would authorize techniques only proponent in the White House.
a hell of a lot worse than waterboard That torture is once again even a
ing. Doing so, he later bragged, topic of discussion at the highest levels
wouldnt bother me even a little bit. of the U.S. government is an alarming
Trump insisted that torture works development for the countryand for
and that even if it doesnt, terrorists us personally. One of us, Antonio Taguba,
deserve it anyway. as a major general in the U.S. Army,
authored a 2004 internal army report
ANTONIO TAGUBA retired from the U.S.
on prisoner abuse at the U.S. detention
Army in 2007 with the rank of Major General. facility in Abu Ghraib, Iraq. Sifting
He led a 2004 army internal investigation into through the evidence documenting the
prisoner abuse at the U.S. detention facility in
Abu Ghraib, Iraq. sickening ways that U.S. military per
sonnel and contractors mistreated Iraqi
SCOTT COOPER retired from the U.S. Marine detainees, he became intimately familiar
Corps with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is
Director of National Security Outreach at with the very worst in human nature
Human Rights First. and the ugliness that war can produce
Tortured Souls
in those waging it. And after what The wrong-headed policies that
became known as the Taguba report produced such high costs were devel-
was leaked and made headlines, every oped by dozens of officials and imple-
one learned just how stubbornly the U.S. mented by a vast bureaucracy at a safe
government can resist taking respon remove from the frontlines. But indi
sibility for its crimes and learning from viduals had to actually carry them out.
its errors. The George W. Bush admin Two such people have recently published
istration blamed the atrocities at Abu books reflecting on their experiences
Ghraib on low-level troops and staffers, doing just that. Eric Fair was a contract
and the senior civilian and military leaders interrogator for the U.S. Army in Iraq.
who devised and authorized abusive His memoir, Consequence, is an act of
tactics and encouraged an environment confession, an effort to confront his
of brutality escaped culpability. Later, demons. James Mitchell is a psychologist
the Obama administration declined to whom the cia hired after the 9/11 attacks
prosecute anyone for ordering abuse or to help devise aggressive new means of
participating in it, even though President extracting information from detainees.
Barack Obama had himself conceded The book he co-authored with the
that the United States had tortured former cia spokesperson Bill Harlow,
some folks. Enhanced Interrogation, is an act of self-
That lack of accountability might be defense. Mitchell, too, wants to confront
one reason why torture is back on the his demons, which is how he seems to
table and once again politically palatable. view almost anyone who has written
A 2014 Washington Postabc News poll critically about the abuse that he and
found that a majority of Americans others inflicted.
believed that the cias use of torture Taken together, the two books serve
was justified. And why wouldnt they? as a reminder of the importance of
By refusing to hold anyone responsible, individual choice and personal agency,
Washington sent a clear signal to Ameri even in the expansive architecture of
cans that the abuse was, in fact, justified U.S. national security. If Trump wants
even if it was illegal, immoral, and likely to put the United States back into the
ineffective. But whether or not torture torture business, he will need the compli
worked, there is little question that it ance of individuals at many levels of
harmed U.S. interests. As Douglas government who are willing to break the
Johnson, Alberto Mora, and Averell law. At a debate during the Republican
Schmidt noted recently in this magazine: primary campaign last year, a moderator
asked Trump what he would do if officials
Washingtons use of torture greatly refused to torture detainees or to take
damaged national security. It incited
extremism in the Middle East, hin
out their families, as Trump had sug
dered cooperation with U.S. allies, gested might be necessary. Theyre
exposed American officials to legal not going to refuse mebelieve me,
repercussions, undermined U.S. Trump scoffed. If I say do it, theyre
diplomacy, and offered a convenient going to do it.
justification for other governments We hope that Trump is wrong. To
to commit human rights abuses. prevent a return to the darkest days of
May/June 2017 117

the so-called war on terror and the Iraq Those sentences capture the ethos
war, military officers, intelligence officials,
that guided many interrogators in the
enlisted people, and contractors must fight against terrorism, whether they
refuse to carry out any illegal orders worked for the military, the cia, or
they receiveeven from the president civilian contractors. The result was an
himself. Doing so will serve the national essentially rule-free zone in which inter
interest and their own self-interest. For rogators were untethered from the usual
as these two books demonstrateby restrictions on battlefield conduct. Fairs
design in Fairs case and inadvertently description of near chaos inside inter
in Mitchellsthe damage wreaked by rogation rooms in Iraq matches what
torture is not limited to the victims: it was learned during the investigation of
also extends to the souls of the torturers. the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Most military
and civilian interrogators had received
FOLLOWING ORDERS little more than on-the-job training and
Fair was born in 1972 and grew up a were not properly supervised. This left
devout Presbyterian. He joined the army them confused about their responsibilities
in 1995 and was honorably discharged in and, in some cases, uncertain about
2000. After the 9/11 attacks, he longed whether they were even subject to U.S.
to serve his country once more and fight legal authority at all.
its new enemies. Although unable to put In spare, haunting prose, Fair details
on the uniform again, he found a way to his own conduct in this environment,
the war zone as a civilian contractor. Fair which became more abusive over time.
was hired by caci, a U.S. corporation He recalls the first time he grabbed a
that had obtained a contract from the detainee; his use of what his colleagues
Defense Department to provide person called the Palestinian chair, a tech-
nel for intelligence work in Iraq. nique they were told that Israeli inter-
The company hired Fair as an inter rogators use to force detainees into an
rogator even though hed never received excruciatingly painful position; and
any military training in interrogation or the way some detainees cried when he
intelligence analysis. His lack of experi asked about their wives and families.
ence was compounded, he claims, by the Inflicting agony on others took a toll
fact that prior to his arrival in Iraq in on Fair. After he returned home, his
December 2003, caci did not train him, marriage unraveled. He drank to excess.
either. But the companys bare-bones He believes he will never be able to earn
orientation program did manage to redemption but that he is obligated to
convince Fair of one thing: the U.S. try. He was doing his countrys bidding;
government had approved and author he was following orders. But what he
ized brutal interrogations. In a passage did was wrong, and he still struggles to
that every policymaker should read come to terms with his actions and find
and remember, he writes: We tor- a way to make amends.
tured people the right way, following
the right procedures, and used the ROUGH MEN
approved techniques. There are no Mitchell, in contrast, feels no guilt
legal consequences. and seeks no forgiveness. He reminds
Tortured Souls
readers that, in the wake of the 9/11 who was waterboarded 183 times. I
attacks, justified fears of another assault have looked into the eyes of the worst
drove U.S. policy, and the cia saw people on the planet, Mitchell writes.
coercive interrogations as one way to I have sat with them and felt their
prevent more bloodshed. The agency passion as they described what they see
turned to Mitchell and his colleague as their holy duty to destroy our way of
Bruce Jessen, who had served as psy life. He and Jessen, he goes on, did
chologists in the U.S. Air Force and what we could to stop them. Mitchell
had overseen the Survival, Evasion, paints himself as something of a good
Resistance, and Escape (sere) training cop in the interrogation room: his
program for personnel deemed to be at suggested techniques, he claims, were
high risk of enemy capture. Mitchell actually less brutal than unproven and
and Jessen had designed and supervised perhaps harsher techniques made up
some of the mock interrogations that on the fly that could have been much
sere trainees undergo to prepare them worse. Mitchell also asserts that his
for what they might endure should they efforts produced intelligence that
ever fall into hostile hands. But the two helped foil terrorist attacks and led to
men had never conducted genuine inter the capture or killing of high-profile
rogations of enemy detainees. Never targets, including Osama bin Laden.
theless, they managed to convince the The U.S. Senate Select Committee
cia that they could adapt sere tactics to on Intelligence spent five years and
the real world, and they quickly became $40 million investigating such claims.
integral players in the cias new detention Its 6,300-page report remains classified.
and interrogation program. Over the But in 2014, the committees Democratic
next eight years, their company, Mitchell majority released a heavily redacted
Jessen & Associates, reportedly earned 500-page executive summary that refuted
some $81 million for its work. They are the idea that the torture carried out by
now facing a lawsuit filed in federal Mitchell and others produced any par
court in Washington State by two former ticularly useful information. The executive
cia detainees and representatives of a summary also revealed that the cia
third, who died in custody, accusing the had routinely exaggerated the success
psychologists of human rights viola of enhanced interrogation and that
tions and seeking compensatory and much of the intelligence the agency had
punitive damages. gathered through torture was either
Mitchells book brings to mind a incorrect or had actually been (or could
quote of uncertain provenance that is have been) gleaned through other means.
sometimes attributed to Winston Mitchell dismisses such findings and
Churchill: We sleep safely in our beds makes clear that he has no interest in
because rough men stand ready in the handwringing about the moral or strategic
night to visit violence on those who costs of torture. At the end of his book,
would harm us. Mitchell casts himself he writes that Americans will not tolerate
as a rough man and takes pride in the for long the reckless squandering of our
violence he visited on detainees such as freedoms to put ointment on some polit
the 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheik Mohammed, ical leaders conscience. Like others who
May/June 2017 119

have spent their careers in the armed of the U.S. Supreme Court justice
forces or the intelligence agencies, we Anthony Kennedy, The Law is
have always sought to emulate military superior to the government, and it
leaders of conscience, such as Dwight binds the government and all its
Eisenhower and George Marshall, officials to its precepts.
and have looked to political leaders of It seems likely that the Trump era
conscience to act not only with wisdom will test U.S. military and intelligence
and strategic sensibility but also with institutions and the individuals who
moral aptitude. But Mitchell seems to bravely serve them. They can pass the
have a different understanding of the test if they heed this simple advice:
role of conscience in war and politics. follow the law.
THE RULE OF LAW

In the aftermath of the Abu Ghraib
revelations, investigations conducted
by the U.S. Congress, government
agencies, the U.S. military, human
rights groups, and media organizations
all pointed to the same conclusion:
although the war on terror and the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have
differed in extraordinary ways from
traditional armed conflicts, the laws of
war must still apply. The Geneva
Conventions of 1949; the un Conven
tion Against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhumane, or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment of 1984; and the U.S.
militarys Uniform Code of Military
Justice were established to prevent
atrocities. They are not fail-safe, and
they are not perfect. But they are the
lawas is the McCain-Feinstein
amendment to the 2016 National
Defense Authorization Act, which,
among other things, made it illegal
for U.S. personnel to employ inter
rogation techniques not explicitly
authorized by the U.S. Army Field
Manual. And regardless of what
Trump might believe, no one is
above the law, and no official can
refuse to follow itno matter what
the president says. In the words
presidential campaign, Trump discarded

Democracy on the notion of facts as necessary anchors
of political discourse and challenged the
the Brink legitimacy of his political opponent,
threatening to lock her up if he won.
Since his inauguration, he has castigated
Protecting the Republic in sections of the mainstream media as fake
Trumps America news and called them the enemy of the
American people, attacked the judiciary,
Suzanne Mettler and claimedwithout evidencethat
electoral fraud cost him victory in the
popular vote. These displays of illiberalism
suggest that the American project of
Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do self-governance, which Americans have
Not Produce Responsive Government long taken for granted, may be in a more
BY CHRISTOPHER H. ACHEN AND precarious condition than most assumed.
LARRY M. BARTELS. Princeton How did the United States come to
University Press, 2016, 390 pp. this point? And how can it revitalize its
democracy? Two new books offer useful
Democracy: A Case Study guidance. Democracy for Realists, by the
BY DAVID A. MOSS. Harvard political scientists Christopher Achen
University Press, 2017, 742 pp. and Larry Bartels, helps explain the roots
of the current crisis. And Democracy,
A
merican democracy has always by the historian David Moss, reveals
been a work in progress. What how Americans have overcome political
Abraham Lincoln called the divisions in the past.
unfinished work of ensuring govern The authors of both books make clear
ment of the people, by the people, for that political conflicts in the United
the people has suffered its share of States are nothing new. Today, Americans
setbacks. For decades, Americans trust face serious threats to their countrys
in government has been declining, sig democracy, but they can draw on a long
naling that not all was well. Yet until tradition of conflict resolution. They
recently, democracy seemed secure in should relearn how to use the institutions
the United States. and toolsleadership, negotiation, and
No longer. President Donald Trump compromisethat have sustained
has unleashed a barrage of attacks on American democracy in the past.
the underpinnings of democratic gov
ernance, threatening checks and balances, FALLING APART
civil liberties, civil rights, and long- In Democracy for Realists, Achen and
established norms. During last years Bartels explain that deep-seated social
identities and group affiliations motivate
SUZANNE METTLER is Clinton Rossiter political action far more than individual
Professor of American Institutions at
Cornell University. Follow her on Twitter rationality does. They convincingly debunk
@SuzanneMettler1. what they term the folk theory of
May/June 2017 121

Suzanne Mettler
electoral democracy, an idealized view in only 45 percent were noncommittal; the

which informed voters assess candidates rest expressed a clear preference.
on the basis of their own policy pref Strong party affiliation proved crucial
erences or ideology and the leaders they in last years election. Many pundits
elect then respond to the wishes of the assumed that after several Republican
majority, producing public policies that Party elites distanced themselves from
meet voters demands. Drawing on a vast Trump, he was doomed to defeat. When
literature, Achen and Bartels argue that, that proved untrue, talking heads and
in fact, most people are uninterested in columnists assured their audiences that
politics and poorly informed about issues. voters would not choose a candidate who
So they act not primarily on the basis of openly denigrated ethnic and religious
individual preferences or rational choices groups and that social conservatives
but rather on the basis of emotional would not condone someone who had
attachments that transcend thinking. bragged about groping women. Yet some
Achen and Bartels argue that peo political scientists predicted that most
ples group affiliations tend to precede Republican voters would eventually drop
their values. They note that partisan- their reservations and come home to
ship, like religious identification, tends the partyand indeed they did.
to be inherited, durable, and not about The election tested Achen and Bartels
ideology and theology. Political affilia argument. Trumps presidency has
tions typically form in childhood, endure gotten off to a rocky start and may test
even when peoples circumstances change, it again. Will anything Trump does
and can be transmitted across gener cause his approval ratings, already low
ations. Most people make their party among Democrats and independents,
choices based on who they are, not what to fall among Republicans? So far, the
they think, Achen and Bartels conclude. percentage of Republicans who approve
This theory helps illuminate con of Trumps job performance is similar
temporary U.S. politics. Over the past to the percentage of Democrats who
few decades, the United States has approved of Barack Obamas and the
witnessed growing polarization. This percentage of Republicans who approved
has manifested itself in everything from of George W. Bushs at the same juncture
increasing partisan bias in presidential in their presidencies.
approval ratings to the fact that, on topics Although Achen and Bartels central
from climate change to the safety of claim that human life is group life
vaccines, voters routinely discount explains a fair amount about contempo
evidence solely because someone on rary politics, it doesnt tell the whole
the other side of the aisle supplied it. story. Consider the fact that most people
Polarizations effects have even gone have several social identities but only
beyond politics. The political scientist some of those identities become polit
Lynn Vavreck has found that in the 1950s, icized. Latinos today have a highly
72 percent of Americans surveyed told politically significant identity; German
pollsters that it did not matter to them or Japanese ancestry mattered politi
whether their daughter married a cally in the 1940s but no longer does.
Democrat or a Republican. By 2016, Evangelical Christians and Muslims
Democracy on the Brink
Too close for comfort? Trump at a rally in Tampa, Florida, October 2016
each have a politicized religious identity; governors in Michigan and Wisconsin,
Episcopalians and agnostics do not. two states in which Trump scored surprise
Whats missing here, in part, is victories, have hastened the decline of
attention to how politics and policy can unions by passing right-to-work laws,
shape, give meaning to, or even create which prevent unions from requiring
identities. Take, for example, the white employees of unionized firms to pay dues.
working-class voters in Rust Belt states In the absence of strong unions, politicians,
who proved pivotal in Trumps victory. including Trump, have appealed to other
In past years, many of these same people identities among the white working class,
would have belonged to labor unions and such as race, geography, and religion.
looked to union leaders for information Peoples experiences of public policies
on which candidate would best represent can create politicized groups, which
their interests. But union membership parties or candidates can then mobilize.
has been falling for years. Large numbers Recipients of Social Security and Medi
of manufacturing jobsthe traditional care, for example, are keen to protect their
base for unionshave disappeared, benefits. During last years campaign,
J O NAT HA N E R N ST / R E U T E R S
presidents since Ronald Reagan have Trump cemented his support among older
withdrawn their support for organized voters when he defied the current Repub
labor, and Congress has for decades lican orthodoxy and assured them that he
failed to update the moribund National would protect those programs. Veterans
Labor Relations Act, from which unions may feel kinship with one another because
derive much of their power. In recent of their shared experience of military
years, conservative legislators and service, businesspeople may unite around
May/June 2017 123

Suzanne Mettler
their frustration with regulations, and the a large family can attest, political diversity
rich may commiserate over the intrica among close relatives is not uncommon.
cies of the tax code. Achen and Bartels Children may gravitate to a different
overlook the role that government policies party than their parents do. According
play in forging such shared identities. to the political scientists Donald Green,
Examining only contemporary group Bradley Palmquist, and Schickler, the
affiliations, moreover, obscures how association between parents partisan
specific policies created or destroyed the identity and that of their adult children is
bonds between parties and certain dem not trivial, but neither is it overwhelm
ographic groups. Although Achen and ing. The emotional distress many
Bartels review some of the relevant reported experiencing at Thanksgiving
history, a deeper look might have affected dinner tables after the 2016 election
their conclusions. Take the case of white indicates that people can find themselves
southerners, who defected from the politically distanced even from those they
Democratic Party to the Republican Party have known all their lives and love dearly.
in the middle of the twentieth century.
Achen and Bartels refute the idea that it HOW TO PERFECT YOUR UNION
was primarily Democratic leaders Throughout the United States history,
endorsement of civil rights in the 1960s Americans have had to deal with faction
that drove white southerners away. As alism. In Democracy, Moss observes that
they show, the shift in partisanship had charges of democratic dysfunction are as
begun earlier. Yet they miss the policy old as the republic itself. In fact, discord
developments on other issues that is to be expected: democracy does not
precipitated the transition. The political function like a machine, with neatly
scientist Eric Schickler has shown that humming checks and balances. It is more
white southerners began to defect from like a living, breathing organismand a
the Democratic Party soon after the fragile one, at that, constantly prone to
passage of the National Labor Relations fragmentation, breakdown and decay.
Act of 1935. That law empowered the Americans, Moss argues, should not fear
Congress of Industrial Organizations, a conflict but rather embrace it: handled
union federation, which promoted civil properly, it permits the best ideas to win
rights and prompted the gop to embrace out, guards against the tyranny of the
states rights in defense of white interests. majority, and helps prevent special interest
Richard Valelly, another political scien groups from gaining too much power.
tist, has highlighted how in the 1950s, Moss makes this argument in his
Republican leaders appealed to white brilliant introductory and concluding
southerners social conservatism, partic chapters, while the core of the book
ularly regarding gay rights. consists of 19 cases from throughout U.S.
Tracing the emergence of group history that exemplify the complexity of
affiliations also reveals that ideas serve political conflict. Moss, a professor at
as a greater driving force than Achen and Harvard Business School, brings the
Bartels acknowledge. They claim that case-study teaching method to history. He
people who grew up together typically challenges readers to imagine themselves
share political views. But as anyone from as participants in the historical cases he
uses, to better understand the deliberative
and decision-making skills necessary for
self-governance. The cases span a wide Not all readers
range. Moss tells the story of the debate
at the Constitutional Convention, in 1787, are leaders,
over James Madisons proposal that
Congress should have the power to veto but all leaders
state laws (the convention rejected the
idea). He presents the decision Martin are readers.
Luther King, Jr., faced in 1965: whether - Harry S. Truman
to defy a federal court order and lead some
2,000 protesters across the Edmund Pettus
Bridge, in Selma, Alabama (King decided
to turn the marchers back; 12 days later, SIGN UP for the
after a higher court lifted the order, they Foreign Aairs
set out over the bridge to Montgomery). Books & Reviews
newsletter
Moss presents each case in rich detail
so that readers can grapple with the tough
choices that the people at the time faced
and decide how they themselves would
have proceeded. Readers can take on the
roles of New York State legislators in
1851, deciding whether to require school
districts to levy taxes to pay for public
education (they produced a weak compro
mise measure with one-time funding, but
the principle of free schools prevailed and
became law in 1867). They may imagine
they are Florida lawmakers in 1982,
charged with ratifying or rejecting the
Equal Rights Amendment (they voted it
down). Moss wisely presents each case
without the outcome; for that, readers
must turn to the appendix.
Together, these cases convey that
Americans today have inherited not
only a set of governing institutions but
also a tradition of conflict resolution
that both relies on democratic norms
and strengthens them through practice.
Tensions are a constant throughout U.S.
political history. The crucial question is
whether citizens can resolve them con ForeignAairs.com/newsletters
structively. Moss suggests that Americans
125

Suzanne Mettler
have lost sight of whats needed: a funda ment experience among several of them
mental commitment to the democratic makes them unorthodox choices. On
principles of self-government. the other hand, Trumps disregard for
facts, his repudiation of the role of the
COMING TOGETHER mainstream media, his criticism of
Both books point out that the American judges, and his disregard for political
founders anticipated challenges much opposition all degrade democratic norms.
like those the United States faces today. Citizens need to assess Trumps actions
As Achen and Bartels acknowledge, their through this lens, distinguishing standard
emphasis on how groups matter in politics partisan moves from those that under
is not new. Madison argued, in The mine self-government and threaten
Federalist Papers, no. 10, that humans are authoritarianism.
all too likely to form factionsgroups On the same day that the Second
that possess a zeal for different opinions Continental Congress ratified the
concerning religion, concerning govern Declaration of Independence, Moss
ment, and many other points. That zeal, reminds readers, it charged Benjamin
he wrote, had divided mankind into Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas
parties, inflamed them with mutual Jefferson with coming up with an
animosity, and rendered them much emblem for the new nation. They
more disposed to vex and oppress each arrived at a motto: E pluribus unum
other than to co-operate for the (Out of many, one). In 1782, Congress
common good. adopted it as part of the seal of the
As Madison knew, it is fruitless to try United States. At the time, it symbolized
to remove the causes of faction, which the challenge of bringing 13 colonies
are sown in the nature of man; people together in the shared project of self-
can only aim to control its effects. The governance. Since then, the principle it
best way of doing so, he argued, is through conveys has enabled Americans across
representative democracy. As Moss nearly two and a half centuries to work
reminds readers, for democracy to succeed, though conflicts and to preserve democ
it requires not only strong institutions, racy. Our differences as Americans are
with checks and balances, but also norms, in fact a profound source of strength,
principles, and the capacity to work across not weakness, Moss writes, but only
differences to get things done. so long as we find enough in common
In this moment of intense political to see ourselves as one nation. The
division, its important to distinguish predecessors of todays Americans gave
the events that are part of the normal, if them the tools to manage, mitigate, and
deeply partisan, course of politics from transcend their current deep divisions,
those that threaten the basis of democ- if they can proudly reaffirm what they
racy itself. Trumps nomination of Judge share: their system of government.
Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court,
for example, is a normal political action,
aimed at satisfying Trumps conservative
base. This holds for his cabinet nominees
as well, even though the lack of govern
demanding money in exchange for

Libyan Ghosts information about the disappeared that
they never supplied. Some of these
people told me they would have given
Searching for Truth almost anything for the peace of mind
After Qaddafi conveyed by a genuine death certificate.
This is the emotional terrain of Hisham
Robert F. Worth Matar, a Libyan British writer whose
career has revolved around the drama of
forced disappearance under dictatorship.
His two novels, In the Country of Men
The Return: Fathers, Sons, and the Land (2006) and Anatomy of a Disappearance
in Between (2011), are both disguised memoirs based
BY HISHAM MATAR. Random House, on the 1990 abduction of his father,
2016, 256 pp. the Libyan dissident Jaballa Matar, by
Egyptian intelligence agents in Cairo.
I
n the early summer of 2003, a few The Egyptians turned the elder Matar
months after the U.S.-led invasion over to the security services of Libyas
of Iraq, I arrived at the door of a vicious ruler, Muammar al-Qaddafi; he
pockmarked building in Baghdad where then entered the ranks of the disappeared.
many of the military and intelligence His family never knew where he was
files of Saddam Husseins government being held; by the mid-1990s, they were
were stored. The street was full of dust, no longer certain if he was even alive.
and Iraqis of all ages were streaming in Capturing Jaballa Matar was a significant
and out, some of them clutching folders. feat for the Libyan regime: he had been
A group of men was standing near the a leading figure in the opposition, using
door in authoritative poses, and older the considerable wealth hed built as a
women were yelling at them, pleading businessman to organize a network inside
for information. I was new to the country, and outside the country that aimed to
and a little baffled at first that these overthrow Qaddafi. In 1979, his family
scraps of yellowing paper had provoked had left Libya for Egypt with him, and
so much passion and excitement. It did soon afterward, his sons had been sent
not take me long to figure out why. For to the even safer remove of European
all the Iraqis publicly executed under boarding schools.
Saddam, countless more had disappeared Matars novels evoke and reference
into his archipelago of dungeons. Their these events; in The Return, Matar fully
families had submitted to a familiar lifts the veil, providing a mesmerizing,
pattern: years of soul-sapping hope and harrowing account of his return to Libya
dread, with regime officials cynically in 2012 and his long effort to grapple
with his fathers fate and legacy. I envy
the finality of funerals, Matar writes early
ROBERT F. WORTH is a journalist and former on in the book. I covet the certainty.
chief of The New York Times Beirut bureau. He
is the author of A Rage for Order: The Middle How it must be to wrap ones hands
East in Turmoil, From Tahrir Square to ISIS. around the bones, to choose how to
May/June 2017 127

Robert F. Worth
place them, to be able to pat the patch himdead or aliveseemed shockingly

of earth and sing a prayer. real. I was in Libya during the 2011
Matar has put together an artfully revolt, reporting for The New York Times
structured book that takes on larger Magazine; I remember speaking to Matar
themes and is ultimately more satisfying once or twice on the phone from Benghazi
than either of his novels. The authors and wondering why he was still in
journey forces him to reassess himself London. The reason, as he makes clear
and his origins and weaves together in the first pages of the book, is that his
multiple characters and histories: an life had become premised, in a sense, on
uncle who survived 21 years in a Libyan not returning. The journey home could
prison; the heroism of his young cousins rob me of a skill that I have worked hard
during the civil war that began in 2011 to cultivate: how to live away from places
after the overthrow of Qaddafi; and the and people that I love. Exile had become
larger, tragic arc of Libyan history, from part of his identity, and he was afraid
the Italian conquest a century ago to the to trade the frozen images he had lived
murderous chaos of the present. Many with for 33 years for up-to-date realities.
fathers and sons are present here, includ He is also an emotionally vulnerable
ing Qaddafis slick and self-deluded man who feared that if he visited the
son Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, who in prison where his father was most likely
2010 approached Matar in London murdered, he might be forever undone.
with dubious promises of information But the temptation to solve the mystery
and friendship. of his fathers fate proved too strong.
In some places, The Return resembles Matar is in fact undone by his visit,
an elegy; in others, a detective story. It although not only in the ways he expected.
is also a meditation on art, mourning, Walking through Benghazi, he begins
and the human costs of dictatorship, to feel unmoored from the exiles anger
which Libyans are still paying. Although that has sustained him for so long: I
Matars narrative does not extend past could see the walls, so old I had never
2012, it sheds more light than any other noticed them before, that stood between
book I have read on the multiple tragedies me and everyone I have ever known,
that have brought Libya to its present every book and painting and symphony
shattered state. and work of art that had ever mattered
to me, suddenly seeming impermanent.
YOU CANT GO HOME AGAIN The freedom frightened me. He finds
Matar was reluctant to return to Libya himself constantly revisiting his past,
after the revolt against Qaddafi began in and the book shuttles accordingly from
February 2011. He was living in London the present tense of the return journey
at the time, awaiting the publication of to various earlier chapters of his life.
his second novel; he had gone to college In this way, The Return recalls Matars
there and had become a British citizen. He first novel, which projected a sensitive
had also spent years on a public campaign childs consciousness onto a paternalistic
to pressure Qaddafis government for culture that is suffused with violence.
information about his father, and suddenly In The Return, Matar revisits this terrain,
the prospect of actually encountering conjuring memories of his childhood
Libyan Ghosts
Gone but not forgotten: Qaddafi in Rome, November 2009

soccer games and his first glimpse of a FATHER FIGURE
sheep being slaughtered. These memories Much of Matars return journey involves
are rendered with an extraordinary eye rediscovering his relatives, whose bravery
for detail and shaped by a heightened provides a striking counterpoint to Matars
awareness of the gulf between child and inwardness. His uncle Mahmoud and
adult perception: other relatives were released from prison
just as the 2011 protests began, after 21
The animal kicked furiously, snorting years of confinement and torture. (They
for air, which entered its nostrils and
escaped through the open neck. The
had been members of Matars fathers
blood poured out black and thick like dissident group.) Mahmoud, it turns out,
date syrup. Small translucent bubbles was sustained for years in prison by an
grew and burst around its mouth. I obsession that is almost a mirror image
snapped my fingers, I clapped my of Matars: he followed news of Matars
hands beside its wide-open eye. When writings in radio broadcasts and press
it did not respond, I began to cry. . . . clippings, in the rare moments when
Moments later, I sat around the table he had access to them. Another relative,
with the others and ate liver and Mahmouds irrepressible son Izzo, plays
kidneys sauted with chili, onion, a major role in Matars poignant retelling
garlic, parsley and coriander, and of the 2011 uprising. Izzo fought with
POOL / REUTERS
agreed that the dish did taste better remarkable bravery on several fronts
than at any other time because the
until he was shot and killed by a sniper
meat was, as one of the adults had
during the liberation of Tripoli in late
said, unbelievably fresh.
August, six months into the conflict.
May/June 2017 129

Robert F. Worth
Izzos brother Hamed kept fighting, despite Matars own father remains a central
his parents pleas, and later traveled to (although spectral) figure in the book,
Syria to join a rebel group there in the and the grandeur and mystery of the
fight against the Assad regime. Matar elder Matar continue to expand during
yells at Hamed over the phone, exhorting his sons return journey. I am the son
him to come home, to no avail. Only of an unusual man, perhaps even a great
after Hamed is wounded and removed man, Matar writes. Many boys are
from the Syrian battlefield does he inclined to think this way about their
agree to return to Libya. fathersand if a father disappears, the
Matars family drama coincides, in temptation only grows. But Matars
many respects, with the brief modern father was clearly a person of immense
history of Libya. His paternal grandfa- charisma long before his disappearance.
ther was born around 1880, when the During the 1980s, capturing the elder
country was a vast and nearly empty Matar became a top priority for the
landscape, as Matar writes, nominally Libyan regime, which sent hit men
under Ottoman rule. After the Italians abroad to find him. He gave his chil-
invaded in 1911, jockeying for a better dren pseudonyms to use when talking
position in the European race for colonial about him in public. At one point, during
territory and hoping to gain a fourth a trip to Europe, Matar chastised his
shore, a fierce native resistance arose, father for being so paranoid. But shortly
guided by the Senussi, a mystical afterward, they passed two men on the
religious order. Its leader was Omar al- street speaking Libyan Arabic. So
Mukhtar, a legendary guerrilla who what does this Jaballa Matar look like
remains Libyas great national hero. anyway? one said to the other. Later,
Matars grandfather fought in the first Matars brother, Ziad, narrowly escaped
phase of the resistance, from 1911 until a carful of would-be kidnappers who
1919. He lived a long life, and Matar chased him all the way to his boarding
knew him well as a boy. He recalls his school in a Swiss mountain village.
grandfather unbuttoning his shirt to When the family urged Jaballa to with
reveal a small rosette just beneath the draw from politics, they encountered
collarbone where an Italian soldiers an austere patriotism: Dont put
bullet had wounded him. Matars yourselves in competition with Libya,
grandfather probably would have died he told them. You will always lose.
had he not fled to Egypt and avoided On his return to Libya in 2012,
the bloodiest phase of the Italian war, Matar meets men who knew his father
after Mussolini took charge in 1922. in prison, and revered him. He hears
Airplanes bombed and gassed villages, about how his father took an enormous
and tens of thousands of Libyans were risk by smuggling out a letter authorizing
marched to concentration camps, where a loan to the family of a fellow prisoner.
torture and starvation were common. When prison officials found out, he
Official Italian records show that the refused to name his accomplices and
population of eastern Libya dropped was tortured horribly for three days.
from 225,000 to 142,000 during this One man shows Matar his fathers
period, Matar writes. youthful fiction, published in a student
journal, some of it relating to the
desert war for independence against the
Italians. Another former prisoner who
knew Matars father and admired him
immensely clutches Matars hand and
gazes into his eyes, unable to express
his emotions except by repeating the
same phrase again and again: Are you
well? Your health? Your family? Franklin Williams
These encounters are interspersed Internship
with Matars reports on the disgraceful The Council on Foreign Relations is seeking
efforts of the Libyan regime to placate talented individuals for the Franklin Williams
him in the years prior to the 2011 revolt. Internship.
The messenger was Qaddafis son Saif, The Franklin Williams Internship, named after
who arranged to meet Matar at a London the late Ambassador Franklin H. Williams,
was established for undergraduate and graduate
hotel in 2010. The British government students who have a serious interest in
was mending fences with Qaddafi at international relations.
the time, and Saif seemed confident Ambassador Williams had a long career of
that he could buy Matar off and elide public service, including serving as the
all the horrors of the previous decades. American Ambassador to Ghana, as well as the
Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln
Saif claimed that he knew what had
University, one of the countrys historically
happened to Matars father, but he black colleges. He was also a Director of the
refused to tell him, saying that he first Council on Foreign Relations, where he made
had to reach some shadowy accommo- special efforts to encourage the nomination of
dation with the Egyptian security black Americans to membership.
services and Qaddafis henchmen. At The Council will select one individual each
term (fall, spring, and summer) to work in
one point during their correspondence,
the Councils New York City headquarters.
Saif texted Matar a quote attributed to The intern will work closely with a Program
the Israeli military leader Moshe Dayan: Director or Fellow in either the Studies or
Most important, dont do anything you the Meetings Program and will be involved
dont want. Matar texted back a quote with program coordination, substantive
and business writing, research, and budget
from Gandhi; Saif responded with a management. The selected intern will be
smiley-face emoji. required to make a commitment of at least 12
In the end, Matars quest to touch hours per week, and will be paid $10 an hour.
his fathers bones is thwarted. For a To apply for this internship, please send a
quarter of a century now, hope has rsum and cover letter including the se-
mester, days, and times available to work to
been seeping out of me, he concludes.
the Internship Coordinator in the Human
Now I can say, I am almost free of it. Resources Office at the address listed below.
He must accept the overwhelming The Council is an equal opportunity employer.
likelihood that his father was murdered Council on Foreign Relations
at the Abu Salim prison in 1996, during a Human Resources Office
massacre in which the Libyan authorities 58 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10065
tel: 212.434 . 9400 fax: 212.434 . 9893
murdered 1,270 men. Their remains [email protected] http://www.cfr.org
were scattered at sea or buried in a mass
131

Robert F. Worth
grave. Fittingly, it was this atrocity of the few hopeful notes I have heard
that helped give rise to the 2011 from revolutionaries in the Middle East
uprising, which was sparked in part is the idea that the Arab revolts of
by a demonstration in Benghazi in 201011 were part of a broader shift
support of a lawyer for the victims away from paternalism. The younger
of the Abu Salim killings. generation, some say, is slowly turning
away from the traditional Arab rever-
FAREWELL TO THE BIG MAN? ence for a big man in politics, culture,
Matars narrative ends in mid-2012, and religion. They hope that this reori
during his brief stay in Libya. At that entation of social life will eventually
point, Libyans were still recovering erode the pillars of autocracy and the
from Qaddafis overthrow and death in ills that came along with it.
the wake of a nato-led military inter The potential for such an outcome
vention. The country had not yet provides little comfort in the present
begun its disintegration into militia- moment. But taking a long-term per-
run fiefdoms, and Matar chooses not spective may be the best way to view
to narrate that catastrophe. In a book the Arab worlds current mayhem. It
so layered with tragedies, perhaps it also gives added meaning to Matars
would have been too much to add preoccupation with a legendary father
another one. Instead, Matar frames his figure, the man whose terrible shadow
return home as a brief moment of is so difficult to escape. I am no
clarity, almost an idyll, when anything different, Matar writes of his filial
seemed possible, and nearly every obsession. I live, as we all live, in
individual I met spoke of his optimism the aftermath.
and foreboding in the same breath.
Those days are long gone. One can
only hope that someday Libyas
national story will again be amenable
to a narrator as sensitive, honest, and
forgiving as Matar.
For the time being, Libya has become
a tale so furious that it seems to resist
all efforts at translation. The outlines
are familiar: two rival governments,
each with foreign backers; a jihadist
insurgency, now largely broken; and a
fragmentation of authority among rival
gangs. Is this the harvest of a miscon
ceived nato intervention? Is it the
inevitable result of Qaddafis deliberate
destruction of Libyan institutions? No
one can be sure.
Matar has said little about Libyas
descent into chaos, perhaps wisely. One
But Trumps comment underscored a

Hack Job larger problem with cyberwarfare:
uncertainty. How does a government
respond to an invisible attacker, especially
How America Invented without clear rules of engagement? How
Cyberwar can officials convince other governments
and the public that they have fingered the
Emily Parker right suspects? How can a state prevent
cyberattacks when without attribution,
the logic of deterrenceif you hit me,
Ill hit you backno longer applies? Two
Dark Territory: The Secret History of recent books delve into these questions.
Cyber War Dark Territory, by Fred Kaplan, and The
BY F RED KAPLAN. Simon & Schuster, Hacked World Order, by Adam Segal, lay
2016, 352 pp. out the history of cybersecurity in the
United States and explain the dangers
The Hacked World Order: How Nations that future digital conflicts might pose.
Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate Both authors also make clear that
in the Digital Age although Americans and U.S. institu
BY ADAM SEGAL. PublicAffairs, 2016, tions increasingly feel themselves to be
320 pp. in the cross hairs of hackers and other
cybercriminals, the United States is itself
T
odays cyberbattles could almost a powerful aggressor in cyberspace.
make one nostalgic for the Cold In the future, the United States must
War. The nuclear arms race use its cyberpower judiciously. Every
created a sense of existential threat, conflict poses the risk that one party
but at least it was clear who had the will make a mistake or overreact, causing
weapons. In contrast, a cyberattack things to veer out of control. When it
could be the work of almost anyone. comes to cyberwar, however, the stakes
After hackers broke into the U.S. are particularly high for the United
Democratic National Committees States, as the countrys technological
servers in 2016 and released e-mails sophistication makes it uniquely
embarrassing to the dncs leadership, vulnerable to attack.
the Republican presidential candidate
Donald Trump said the attacker could CYBER-SUPERPOWER
be China, Russia, or somebody sitting The dramatic headlines surrounding
on their bed that weighs 400 pounds. Russias alleged hacking of the dnc
U.S. intelligence officials have said and attempts to spread misinformation
that the attack did indeed come from online during the U.S. election may
Russia, which Trump later acknowledged. have reinforced the perception among
Americans that the United States is
EMILY PARKER is a Future Tense Fellow at primarily a victim of cyber-intrusions.
New America and the author of Now I Know
Who My Comrades Are: Voices From the Internet Its not. In Dark Territory, Kaplan details
Underground. the United States long history of
May/June 2017 133

Emily Parker
aggression in cyberspace. Its not easy American officials also enlisted the
to write an engaging book on cyberwar, help of Hollywood producers, persuading
and Kaplan, a national security colum- them to supply programming to a U.S.-
nist at Slate, has done an admirable job. aligned Serbian station. During major
He presents a clear account of the anti-nato protests, Serbians would turn
United States evolution into a formi on the television to find the channel
dable cyberpower, guiding the reader playing episodes of Baywatch. Kaplan
through a thicket of technical details asserts, Many Serbs, who might other
and government acronyms. wise have hit the streets to make trouble,
It turns out that the U.S. govern stayed in to watch young women cavorting
ment has been an aggressor for over a in bikinis.
quarter century. Kaplan describes Around a decade later, the United
counter command-control warfare States set up what Kaplan calls a mini-
attempts to disrupt an enemys ability nsa in Iraq. Kaplan describes how nsa
to control its forcesthat goes back teams in the Middle East intercepted
to the Gulf War in 199091. At a time insurgents e-mails and shut down many
when U.S. President George H. W. of their servers with malware. In other
Bush had never used a computer, the cases, they sent insurgents deceptive
National Security Agency (nsa) was e-mails directing them to places where
employing a secret satellite to monitor U.S. Special Forces would be waiting to
the conversations of Iraqi President kill them. In 2007 alone, these sorts of
Saddam Hussein and his generals, operations . . . killed nearly four thousand
which sometimes revealed the positions Iraqi insurgents, Kaplan writes.
of Iraqi soldiers. The United States most ambitious
The United States flexed its digital cyberattack began in 2006, when it
muscles again in the late 1990s, when teamed up with Israel to sabotage the
Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina were Iranian nuclear program. The collab
protesting the presence of nato soldiers oration, dubbed Operation Olympic
enforcing the 1995 Dayton peace agree Games, targeted Irans Natanz reactor,
ment, which had ended the Bosnian war. which relied on remote computer controls.
U.S. officials learned that local news Malware designed by American pro
casters were telling protesters when and grammers took over the reactors valve
where to gather and even instructing pumps, allowing nsa operatives to
them to throw rocks at nato soldiers. remotely increase the flow of uranium
It turned out that 85 percent of Serbs gas into the centrifuges, which even
got their television broadcasts from just tually burst. By early 2010, the operation
five transmission towers. U.S. officials, had destroyed almost a quarter of Irans
working with the nato-led stabilization 8,700 centrifuges.
force, or sfor, installed devices on those For years, the Iranians failed to detect
five transmitters that allowed sfor the intrusion and must have wondered
engineers to turn them on and off if the malfunctions were their own fault.
remotely. Whenever a newscaster In that sense, Kaplan writes, Operation
began urging people to protest, the Olympic Games was a classic campaign
engineers shut off the transmitters. of information warfare: the target wasnt
Hack Job
We can hear you now: a former NSA monitoring base in Bad Aibling, Germany, July 2013
just the Iranians nuclear program but cyber attack on another nations critical
also the Iranians confidencein their infrastructure.
sensors, their equipment, and them Of course, cyberattackers have often
selves. The Iranians and the wider targeted the United States. In 2014 alone,
public might never have learned about Kaplan reports, the country suffered more
the virus, now widely known as Stuxnet, than 80,000 cybersecurity breaches, more
if it had not accidentally spread from than 2,000 of which led to data losses.
the computers in Natanz to machines He also points out that until recently,
in other parts of the world, where U.S. policymakers worried less about
private-sector security researchers Russia than China, which was engaging
ultimately discovered it. not just in espionage and battlefield
With Olympic Games, the United preparation, but also in the theft of trade
States crossed the Rubicon, in the secrets, intellectual property, and cash.
words of the former cia director Michael China and Russia are not the only
Hayden. Stuxnet was the first major piece players. Iran and North Korea have also
of malware to do more than harm other attacked the United States. In 2014, the
MICHAEL DALD E R / REUT E RS
computers and actually cause physical businessman Sheldon Adelson criticized

destruction. The irony was rich, as Kaplan Iran, which responded by hacking into
notes: For more than a decade, dozens the servers of Adelsons Las Vegas Sands
of panels and commissions had warned Corporation, doing $40 million worth of
that Americas critical infrastructure damage. That same year, hackers calling
was vulnerable to a cyber attackand themselves the Guardians of Peace broke
now America was launching the first into Sonys network. They destroyed
May/June 2017 135

Emily Parker
thousands of computers and hundreds U.S. State Department officials identify

of servers, exposed tens of thousands of themselves on Facebook and Twitter,
Social Security numbers, and released react slowly to news, and offer factual,
embarrassing personal e-mails pilfered rule-based commentary. Unfortunately,
from the accounts of Sony executives. as Segal notes, content that is shocking,
U.S. government officials blamed the conspiratorial, or false often crowds out
North Korean government for the attack. the reasonable, rational, and measured.
Sony Pictures was about to release The Social media battles also play out in
Interview, a silly comedy about a plot to the Middle East. In 2012, the Israel
assassinate the North Korean ruler Kim Defense Forces and Hamas fought a
Jong Un. As opening day neared, the war for public opinion using Facebook,
hackers threatened theaters with retaliation Twitter, Google, Pinterest, and Tumblr
if they screened the movie. When Sony at the same time as the two were ex
canceled the release, the threats stopped. changing physical fire. The Islamic
State (also known as isis) has launched
EVERYBODY HACKS digital campaigns that incorporate, in
The Hacked World Order covers some Segals words, brutality and barbarism,
of the same ground as Dark Territory, packaged with sophisticated production
although with a slightly wider lens. In techniques. The United States has tried
addition to discussing cyberattacks to fight back by sharing negative stories
and surveillance, Segal, a fellow at the about isis and, in 2014, even created a
Council on Foreign Relations, details video, using footage released by the group,
how the United States and other coun that featured severed heads and cruci
tries use social media for political ends. fixions. The video went viral, but analysts
Russia, for example, tries to shape online inside and outside the U.S. government
discourse by spreading false news and criticized it for embracing extremist tactics
deploying trolls to post offensive or similar to isis own. Moreover, as Segal
distracting comments. The Russian notes, it seems to have failed to deter
government has reportedly hired English isis supporters.
speakers to praise President Vladimir Part of what makes the cyber-era so
Putin on the websites of foreign news challenging for governments is that
outlets. The goal is not necessarily to conflict isnt limited to states. Many
endear Americans to Putin, Segal explains. actors, including individuals and small
Rather, it sows confusion online to make groups, can carry out attacks. In 2011,
reasonable, rational conversation impos for example, the hacker collective Anon
sible. Chinese Internet commenters also ymous took down Sonys PlayStation
try to muddy the waters of online discus Network, costing the company $171
sion. Segal claims that the Chinese million in repairs. Individuals can also
government pays an estimated 250,000 disrupt traditional diplomacy, as when
300,000 people to support the official WikiLeaks released thousands of State
Communist Party agenda online. Department cables in 2010, revealing
Segal suggests that the United States U.S. diplomats candid and sometimes
will likely not win social media wars embarrassing assessments of their
against countries such as China or Russia. foreign counterparts.
Hack Job
Segal is at his best in his discussion of hacking are acceptable and what
of Chinas cyberstrategy, on which he behavior crosses the line even harder.
has considerable expertise. Americans The Snowden revelations may have
tend to see themselves as a target of alerted Americans to the extent of U.S.
Chinese hackersand indeed they are. government surveillance, but the public
The problem is that China also sees itself still remains largely in the dark about
as a victim and the United States as digital conflict. Yet Americans have a
hypocritical. In June 2013, U.S. President lot at stake. The United States may be
Barack Obama warned Chinese President the worlds strongest cyberpower, but it
Xi Jinping that Chinese hacking could is also the most vulnerable. Segal writes:
damage the U.S.-Chinese relationship.
The United States is . . . more
Later that month, journalists published
exposed than any other country.
documents provided by Edward Snowden, Smart cities, the Internet of Things,
an nsa contractor, showing that the and self-driving cars may open up
nsa had hacked Chinese universities vast new economic opportunities as
and telecommunications companies. well as new targets for destructive
It didnt take long for Chinese state attacks. Cyberattacks could disrupt
media to brand the United States as and degrade the American way of
the real hacking empire. war, heavily dependent as it is on
The U.S.-Chinese relationship also sensors, computers, command and
suffers from a more fundamental dis control, and information dominance.
agreement. U.S. policymakers seem to
believe that its acceptable to spy for FOREWARNED IS FOREARMED
political and military purposes but that Neither Kaplan nor Segal offers easy
Chinas theft of intellectual property solutions to these challenges. Kaplan
crosses a line. The United States might argues that the cyber-era is much
spy on companies and trade nego murkier than the era of the Cold War.
tiators all over the world, but it does Officials find it difficult to trace attack
so to protect its national interests, not ers quickly and reliably, increasing the
to benefit specific U.S. companies. The chances that the targeted country will
Chinese dont see this distinction. As make an error. The U.S. government
Segal explains: and U.S. firms face cyberattacks every
Many states, especially those like day, and there is no clear line between
China that have developed a form of those that are merely a nuisance and
state capitalism at home, do not see a those that pose a serious threat. The
difference between public and private public also understands cyberthreats
actors. Chinese firms are part of an far less well than it does the threat of
effort to modernize the country and nuclear weapons. Much of the informa
build comprehensive power, no matter tion is classified, inhibiting public discus
whether they are private or state sion, Kaplan notes. He concludes that
owned. Stealing for their benefit is we are all wandering in dark territory.
for the benefit of the nation. Segals conclusions are somewhat
The intense secrecy surrounding more prescriptive. The United States
cyberwarfare makes deciding what kinds must support research and technological
May/June 2017 137

Emily Parker
innovation, for example, and not just by Those risks now seem greater than
providing more federal funding. Segal ever. Some experts have argued that
recommends that the United States Obamas response to the Russian cyber
replace its federal research plan with a attacks in 2016 did not do enough to
public-private partnership to bring in deter future attackers. But if Obama
academic and commercial expertise. underreacted, the United States may
Government and private companies now face the opposite problem. Trump
need to share more information, and has proved willing to make bold, some
companies need to talk more openly times unsubstantiated accusations. This
with one another about digital threats. behavior is dangerous in any conflict,
The United States should also develop but in the fog of cyberwar, it could
a code of conduct that draws a clear spell catastrophe.
line between its friends and allies and Is there anything the American
its potential adversaries. This would public can do to prevent this? All over
include limiting cyberattacks to military the country, people have been trying
actions and narrowly targeted covert to check Trumps worst impulses by
operations, following international law, protesting, appealing to members of
rarely spying on friends, and working to Congress, or simply demanding more
strengthen international norms against information. Policy about cyberspace
economic espionage. If the United States generally doesnt draw the same level
is attacked, it should not necessarily of public engagement, in part due to a
launch a counterattack, Segal argues; lack of knowledge. Cyberbattles can
rather, it should explore using sanctions seem confusing, technical, and shrouded
or other tools. This was apparently the in secrecy, perhaps better left to the
path that Obama took after the attack experts. But cybersecurity is everyones
on the dnc, when the United States problem now. The American public should
punished Moscow by imposing fresh inform itself, and these two books are
sanctions and expelling 35 suspected a good place to start. If Washington
Russian spies. inadvertently led the United States into
Its likely only a matter of time a major cyberwar, Americans would
before the Trump administration have the most to lose.
faces a major cyberattack. When that
happens, the government will need
to react calmly, without jumping to
conclusions. Failure to do so could
have dire consequences. The United
States, Russia, and China are unlikely
to launch destructive attacks against
each other unless they are already
engaged in military conflict or perceive
core interests as being threatened,
Segal writes. The greatest risks
are misperception, miscalculation,
and escalation.
Kahneman and Tversky belatedly. Unbe

Mind Games knownst to him, they had provided the
scientific basis for the phenomenon he
chronicled in Moneyballnamely, how
The Partnership That baseball scouts tended to eschew statistical
Upended Social Science indicators of a players past performance,
relying instead on their subjective im
Yuen Foong Khong pressions of whether his look and build
matched what they thought made a
baseball player great. Kahneman and
Tversky called this the representativeness
The Undoing Project: A Friendship That heuristic, a cognitive shortcut used to
Changed Our Minds assess events and individuals in terms
BY MICHAEL LEWIS. Norton, 2017, of their fit with a preconceived notion.
239 pp. The problem, they found, was that this
shortcut often led to errors. Moneyball
W
e study natural stupidity told the story of how Billy Beane, the
instead of artificial intel general manager of the Oakland As, built
ligence. That was how Amos a winning team by doing away with
Tversky described his collaboration with intuition in favor of cold, hard statistics.
Daniel Kahneman, a partnership between Lewis devotes a healthy chunk of
two Israeli psychologists that produced The Undoing Project to detailing Kahneman
some of the twentieth centurys most and Tverskys experiments and explaining
important findings about how the mind their significance in an accessible way.
works. Through a series of ingenious His summaries of their key papers are
experiments, Kahneman and Tversky competent, although he shies away from
discovered systematic biases in the way raising critical questions about their work,
humans estimate probabilities and, in perhaps feeling that it is not his place
so doing, revolutionized the study and to do so. His discussion of some of their
practice of economics, medicine, law, and theories can also come across as truncated.
public policy. If Tversky had not died in Fortunately for readers, however, it is
1996, at the age of 59, he would most likely now possible to learn about these exper
have shared the Nobel Prize in Economics iments and the thinking behind them
awarded to Kahneman in 2002. directly from the source: from Kahnemans
Michael Lewis has written an original own bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow,
and absorbing account of the 20-year published in 2011.
partnership and the ideas it generated. The truly novel aspect of Lewis book
The author of such bestsellers as Liars is the light it sheds on the circumstances
Poker and Moneyball, Lewis discovered of the Kahneman-Tversky partnership.
A big part of the story concerns the role
YUEN FOONG KHONG is Li Ka Shing Profes- of praxisreal-world experiencein
sor of Political Science at the Lee Kuan Yew germinating great ideas. Kahneman and
School of Public Policy and the author of
Analogies at War: Korea, Munich, Dien Bien Phu, Tversky were deeply influenced by their
and the Vietnam Decisions of 1965. experiences as Israelis; indeed, at times
May/June 2017 139

Yuen Foong Khong
his account reads like a narrative of their recruitsjust as Beane would do years
ideas told through war, beginning with later with baseball.
their childhoods in World War II and Similarly, Tverskys interest in how
stretching through their involvement in people assess probabilities was informed
four Arab-Israeli wars. But Lewis also by his concerns about the Israeli govern
delves into the fascinating psychological ments estimates of the probability of
dynamics that made their partnership war in the run-ups to the 1956 Sinai
work. Drawing on extensive interviews campaign, the 1967 Six-Day War, and
with Kahneman himself and excellent the 1973 Yom Kippur War, all of which
access to Tverskys papers and his wife, took the Israelis by some degree of
Barbara, Lewis was able to construct surprise. While on reserve duty in the
an account of the friendship that lays Golan Heights after the 1967 war, Lewis
bare, warts and all, the emotions, intel writes, Tversky would gaze down upon
lectual intensity, and tensions behind Syrian soldiers, and judge from their
their creativity. movements if they were planning to
attack. After the Yom Kippur War,
LOVE AND LOSS Kahneman and Tversky wondered
A recurrent theme of The Undoing why it had been so difficult for their
Project concerns how Kahnemans and government to return the Sinai, which
Tverskys lives as Israelis shaped the Israel had seized in 1967, to Egypta
questions they asked, many of which gesture that might have removed Egypts
had real security implications. Israel motivation to launch the surprise attack
took its professors more seriously than that began the war. Their answer was
America did, Lewis writes. Israeli that the psychological pain of losing
intellectuals were presumed to have something one had acquired exceeded
some possible relevance to the survival the pain of not having it in the first
of the Jewish state, and the intellectuals place. That thesis would become a major
responded by at least pretending to be component of their seminal paper on
relevant. Kahneman and Tversky didnt what they called prospect theory.
need to pretend, and their curiosity A second theme of Lewis involves
about how the mind works was directly the intellectual and emotional intensity
relevant to important questions facing of the Kahneman-Tversky partnership.
Israeli society. Their interest in the way They completed each others sentences,
people assess probabilities and their told each others jokes, and critiqued
skepticism about human intuition, for each others ideas. What they were
instance, stemmed from their time in like, in every way but sexually, was lovers,
the Israeli military. Assigned to the Lewis writes. Tverskys wife agreed:
armys psychology unit fresh out of Their relationship was more intense
Hebrew University, Kahneman invented than in a marriage. Their brilliance,
a personality test, still in use today, that combined with their stupendous work
successfully predicted who would make ethic, made them academic superstars
good officers. The key was to ignore the in both Israel and the United States.
interviewers intuition and focus on the But the two were accorded uneven
actual past behavior of the young recognition. Tversky was the initial
Mind Games
Think again: Johnson and advisers discussing the situation in Vietnam, October 1968
recipient of the academic accolades, a findings, including myself, this is a
snub that hurt Kahneman, who felt, startling revelation. Outsiders have
correctly, that they were equal partners always assumed that the two were equal
in generating their ideas. partners, but what really mattered, Lewis
Ultimately, like many of the most is saying, were the subjective perceptions
creative partnershipsJohn Lennon of the collaborators themselves, especially
and Paul McCartney, Steve Jobs and that of Kahneman. Kahneman comes
Steve Wozniaktheir collaboration could across as incredibly human, open, and
not survive the envy and rivalry, and it vulnerable. One cannot help but root
ended in the late 1980s. Although they for him when the ultimate recognition
remained friends right to the end of came in the form of a Nobel Prize.
Tverskys days, Lewis reveals that as Before it collapsed, this fruitful
their collaboration neared its conclusion, relationship managed to overturn many
Tversky never afforded Kahneman the existing assumptions about how the
respect Kahneman thought he was owed. mind works. The article they published
Danny needed something from Amos, on prospect theory in Econometrica in
U.S. I N F O R MAT I O N AG E NCY
Lewis writes in one touching passage. 1979the most cited in the journals
He needed him to correct the perception historylaunched a frontal assault on
that they were not equal partners. And assumptions that had, until then, informed
he needed it because he suspected Amos all economic analysis and much of political
shared that perception. science. Kahneman and Tverskys experi
For those of us who have consumed ments showed that contrary to the think
or applied Kahneman and Tverskys ing at the time, decisions made in the
May/June 2017 141

Yuen Foong Khong
face of uncertainty are based less on These examples also show that
calculations of the net expected value applying prospect theory to foreign
of an outcome and more on perceptions policy is not straightforward. For each
of gains and losses relative to a reference decision, one can make the argument
point. Furthermore, and again contra that the decision-maker acted ration
dicting the prevailing theories, they ally: Mao correctly judged that he
proved that losses matter more than could beat back the U.S.-un attack
gains. If people perceive themselves to on North Korea, Carter had reason to
be in the domain of gains, they tend believe that the rescue operation might
to avoid taking risks, fearing that they work, and Bush had received intelli-
will start losing. But when they find gence that made an invasion of Iraq
themselves in the domain of losses, look less risky than tolerating the
they become more willing to take slightest chance of an Iraq armed with
them, desperate to somehow reverse weapons of mass destruction. Scholars
their fortunes. must therefore take care to properly
The practical implication of this specify the reference points that decision-
finding is that when trying to under makers are working from, the value
stand a given choice, one cannot focus they place on the alternative options,
exclusively on the decision-makers and their estimates of the probability
calculations of which alternative would of various outcomes.
maximize utility; its also crucial to figure
out his point of reference, in order to THE PERILS OF SHORTCUTS
determine whether he sees himself as Although prospect theory is widely
operating in the domain of gains or the seen as Kahneman and Tverskys most
domain of losses. International relations original contribution to social science,
scholars have applied prospect theory to their earlier work on heuristics is just
explain Mao Zedongs decision to bring a as noteworthy. Beginning with the
militarily weaker China into the Korean assumption that cognitive processing
War in 1950, U.S. President Jimmy powers are limited, Kahneman and
Carters approval of the risky operation Tversky contrived experiments showing
to rescue American hostages from Iran that people resort to shortcuts to help
in 1980, and U.S. President George W. estimate probabilities and make sense
Bushs ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003. of the world. And these shortcuts, they
In all these cases, the argument goes, found, tend to lead one astray.
the leaders saw themselves as facing loss: Consider one classic experiment
Mao feared that a Western victory in on the representativeness heuristic, in
North Korea would damage Chinas which Kahneman and Tversky provided
national security, Carter was desperate subjects with a description of a person
to end the hostage crisis, and Bush felt named Linda:
especially vulnerable in the wake of the Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken,
9/11 attacks. Each leader was thus more and very bright. She majored in
willing to take the risk of using military philosophy. As a student, she was
force, even though the probability of deeply concerned with issues of
success was far from clear. discrimination and social justice,
and also participated in antinuclear
demonstrations.
Then they asked their subjects to rank
the probability that various statements
about Linda were true. What is more
likely, they asked: that Linda is a bank
teller or that Linda is a bank teller
and is active in the feminist movement?
If you answered the latter, you made The Internship
the same mistake that 85 percent of Program
Kahneman and Tverskys respondents did.
The Council on Foreign Relations is seek-
Simple statistics tells us that the number ing talented individuals who are consider-
of female bank tellers who happen to be ing a career in international relations.
feminists cannot be bigger than the Interns are recruited year-round on a semester
number of female bank tellers of all basis to work in both the New York City and
ideological persuasions. Yet because the Washington, D.C., offices. An interns duties
description of Linda seems representative generally consist of administrative work,
editing and writing, and event coordination.
of an activist feminist, that assessment of
The Council considers both undergraduate
fit overrides a basic mathematical fact.
and graduate students with majors in Interna-
This insight is also relevant to foreign tional Relations, Political Science, Economics,
policy. During the Vietnam War, for or a related field for its internship program.
example, U.S. officials regularly resorted A regional specialization and language skills
to historical analogies to make sense of may also be required for some positions. In
the challenges they were facing. President addition to meeting the intellectual require-
ments, applicants should have excellent
John F. Kennedy was especially taken by skills in administration, writing, and re-
an analogy to the 194860 communist search, and a command of word processing,
insurgency against the British in Malaya, spreadsheet applications, and the Internet.
and he pestered his generals to study To apply for an internship, please send a
the episode. President Lyndon Johnson rsum and cover letter including the se-
and his secretary of state, Dean Rusk, mester, days, and times available to work
to the Internship Coordinator in the Hu-
preferred analogies to the Munich Agree man Resources Office at the address listed
ment (where appeasement abetted below. Please refer to the Councils Web
aggression) and the Korean War (where site for specific opportunities. The Coun-
initial U.S. setbacks were followed by cil is an equal opportunity employer.
victory). Rusks deputy, George Ball,
wrote long memos contesting the relevance
of the Korean analogy and proposing
his own comparison to Frances 1954
defeat in the Battle of Dien Bien Phu.
Council on Foreign Relations
In Balls view, the United States would Human Resources Office
lose the war and be kicked out of 58 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10065
Vietnam, just as France was. tel: 212.434 . 9400 fax: 212.434 . 9893
[email protected] http://www.cfr.org
My own analysis of the Johnson
administrations decision-making suggests
143

Yuen Foong Khong
that the Korean analogy trumped all others and found them wanting. The value of
because it was deemed most representative this contribution can hardly be overstated;
of the challenge in Vietnam. There, as their studies are worthy of the Nobel
in Korea, the United States found itself Prize because they challenged a funda
fighting in an Asian conflict against a mental tenet of economicsthe notion
communist north that, aided by China of the rational actorand replaced it
and Russia, was bent on taking over the with a more realistic description of
South. Once chosen, this analogy shaped how humans actually think.
U.S. decision-making: it predisposed Kahenman and Tverskys work was
policymakers toward military intervention instrumental in launching the field of
on the theory that it would save the South behavioral economics and has seen wide
(just as it had in Korea), but with the applications in business, especially in
caveat that the United States must not finance and insurance. In public policy,
apply excessive force against the North it enabled Cass Sunstein, who served
(since it was U.S. forces crossing the as chief of the Office of Information
38th parallel in Korea that precipitated and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama
Chinese military intervention). administration, to increase the number
In hindsight, its clear that U.S. of poor children taking advantage of
policymakers chose the wrong historical public schools free-lunch programs. He
lens; had they studied the situation more did so by reframing the choice archi
carefully, and with less hubris, they mighttecture their parents faced. Instead of
have gone with Balls Dien Bien Phu requiring parents to submit paperwork
analogy. That would have helped them to enroll their children in their schools
realize that defeat was almost inevitable: program, Sunstein automatically enrolled
because the Vietnamese were fighting them. That simple changebased on
to rid themselves of foreign domination, the underlying idea that people usually
they had far more willpower than foreign find it easier to go along with whatever
ers facing domestic and international is presented as the default option
opposition. France, however, hardly increased the number of poor children
seemed representative of the United receiving free lunches by some 40 percent.
States. As one U.S. four-star general For all of Kahneman and Tverskys
put it, The French havent won a war achievements, however, their ideas raise
since Napoleon. What can we learn a couple of follow-up questions. One is
from them? how transferable the findings of experi
ments performed on bright undergradu
CORRECTING THE UNCONSCIOUS ates are to the real world, where the
There is no doubt that Kahneman and stakes are higher and where decision-
Tverskys work, as Lewis subtitle puts makers are more experienced. Kahneman
it, changed our minds: it has forced us and Tversky dealt with this objection
to toss out the flattering portrait of our directly: they subjected statisticians,
cognitive abilities once popular among doctors, and other professionals to their
economists and political scientists. experiments and found that they
Kahneman and Tversky performed a succumbed to the same cognitive foibles
reality check on human thought processes the undergraduates had.
Mind Games
The second issue is more daunting: challenge, the two professors warned
Are the heuristics that people routinely against latching on to the first his
resort to really all that harmful? Or, as torical analogy that comes to mind (a
the psychologists Richard Nisbett and System 1 attribute) and instead urged
Lee Ross once put it, quoting a colleague, students to switch mental gears (to
If were so dumb, how come we made System 2s territory) by expanding their
it to the moon? Given the many errors repertoire of historical parallels and
of human thinking that Kahneman and assessing the degree of fit of each in a
Tversky cataloged, one might think systematic manner.
that shortcuts tend to hurt more than This picture of decision-making is
they help. more nuanced than Tverskys quip
Not so. In his latest work, Kahneman about natural stupidity. Recognizing
puts these heuristics in perspective, slotting their shortcomings, humans are capable
human thinking into two different cate of self-correction. Perhaps that is why,
gories: what he and other psychologists for all our cognitive limitations, we
call System 1 and System 2. The heuristics still made it to the moon.
that he and Tversky identified are mani
festations of System 1, fast thinking
intuitive, largely unconscious, and error-
prone. System 2, or slow thinking, by
contrast, is more deliberate and conscious.
As Kahneman writes, System 1 is indeed
the origin of much that we do wrong,
but it is also the origin of most of what
we do rightwhich is most of what we
do. Our thoughts and actions are routinely
guided by System 1 and generally are on
the mark. System 1 serves people well
because they learn from their mistakes
and develop skills that are inscribed in
their memory and automatically produce
adequate solutions to challenges as
they arise. Moreover, people often call
on System 2 to correct the excesses of
System 1.
Thats what the historians Ernest
May and Richard Neustadt taught
generations of students at Harvards
Kennedy School of Government to
do, before the System 1 and System 2
terminology had been invented.
Conscious of how decision-makers
routinely picked the wrong historical
precedent when facing an unfamiliar
May/June 2017 145

under which the United States does

Asia in the not formally recognize the Taiwanese
government. On his first full weekday
Trump Era in office, Trump withdrew the United
States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(tpp), the 12-nation, U.S.-led trade deal
From Pivot to Peril? that many in the American foreign policy
establishment saw as crucial to preserving
Bilahari Kausikan U.S. influence in the region.
Since then, however, Trump has
appeared to adopt a more traditional
The Pivot: The Future of American posture. He recognized the one China
Statecraft in Asia policy in February during his first phone
BY KURT CAMPBELL. Twelve, 2016, call with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
432 pp. His secretary of defense, James Mattis,
traveled to Japan and South Korea to
By More Than Providence: Grand Strategy reassure leaders in both places that the
and American Power in the Asia Pacific United States remains a committed ally,
Since 1783 despite Trumps comments on the cam
BY MICHAEL J. G REEN. Columbia paign trail that the United States could
University Press, 2017, 760 pp. save money if those countries developed
their own nuclear weapons. Soon there
The End of the Asian Century: War, after, Trump hosted Japanese Prime
Stagnation, and the Risks to the Worlds Minister Shinzo Abe at his Mar-a-Lago
Most Dynamic Region resort, in Florida, where he assured him
BY MICHAEL R. AUSLIN. Yale that the U.S.-Japanese relationship runs
University Press, 2017, 304 pp. very, very deep.
In short, it remains too early to tell
D
onald Trump ran for office what the Trump administrations overall
promising to overturn U.S. strategy toward Asia will be. Although
policy toward Asia. He threat written before the presidential election,
ened to launch a trade war against China, two new books offer some sound advice.
calling for a 45 percent tariff on Chinese The Pivot, by Kurt Campbell, who served
imports to the United States and promising in Barack Obamas administration, and By
to label Beijing a currency manipulator. More Than Providence, by Michael Green,
After his election as U.S. president, he who worked for President George W.
broke with four decades of precedent Bush, are essential guides to under
when he spoke to Taiwans leader on the standing U.S. policy in Asia. They
phone and declared that the United States reflect a bipartisan consensus among
might not uphold the one China policy American scholar-practitioners that
the foundation of U.S.-Chinese ties U.S. leadership remains irreplaceable
for ensuring the regions future peace
BILAHARI KAUSIKAN is Ambassador-at-
Large at Singapores Ministry of Foreign Affairs. and prosperitya consensus that the
The views expressed here are his own. Trump administration would do well
Asia in the Trump Era
to heed. A third new book, meanwhile, finally elevate Asia to a new prominence
The End of the Asian Century, by Michael in the councils of American policymaking.
Auslin, charts some of the dangers that Most countries in the region welcomed
lie ahead if the region fails to manage more U.S. attention to Asia by the Obama
its many risks. administration after Bushs Middle Eastern
entanglements. But the policy was poorly
THE INDISPENSABLE NATION named. A pivot connotes inconsistency:
In January, in front of a packed audience what pivots one way can easily swing
at the World Economic Forum, in Davos, another. As Campbell himself notes,
Xi delivered a strong defense of global words . . . create perceptions, and
ization. He signaled that China was incorrect perceptions can obscure the
prepared to lead the liberal international truth. The label reinforced a talking point
order if the United States was not. But that Beijing never tires of repeating: that
Xis speech was as much a tacit admission the United States is an unreliable partner.
of nervousness about the erosion of that Every new administration feels
order as it was a declaration of confidence compelled to emphasize how its policies
in Chinas power: Xi offered no real differ from those of its predecessor,
alternative to the international system and the Obama administration was no
that the United States has built over exception. But it would have been better
the past seven decades. to have stressed the consistency of U.S.
In reality, China cannot lead the policy toward the Asia-Pacific. To Green,
current global order. The leader of an who served as senior director for Asia
open system must itself be open, and on George W. Bushs National Security
the Chinese Communist Party is con Council, U.S. policy in the region has
cerned that further liberalization may had a central unifying theme since 1783:
jeopardize its rule. Growth in China The United States will not tolerate
has slowed, labor and social unrest are any other power establishing exclusive
widespread, and Xis anticorruption hegemonic control over Asia or the
campaign has unsettled party cadres. Pacific. Greens book is diplomatic
External confidence masks internal history at its best. Drawing on archival
insecurity. U.S. leadership in Asia work, interviews, and his own experience
remains indispensable. as a policymaker, Green carefully traces
No one is more aware of this reality how American strategists have thought
than Campbell, one of the United States about East Asia from the eighteenth
most distinguished diplomats, who served century to the present day.
as assistant secretary of state for East He argues that five tensions, which
Asian and Pacific affairs from 2009 to reappear with striking predictability,
2013 and was one of the chief architects have defined U.S. policy in the Asia-
of the Obama administrations pivot Pacific over the past two centuries: the
to Asia, the policy for which his book is tension between prioritizing Europe
named. Campbells central argument is and prioritizing Asia (he argues that
a sophisticated defense of that policy, when the United States Asia strategy
and he makes a powerful case for its has been an afterthought to its policy in
continuation: It is time, he writes, to Europe or the Middle East, American
May/June 2017 147

Bilahari Kausikan
policy in the region has proven deeply Part of Asias problem, Auslin argues,
flawed); between emphasizing relations is that more than any other region except
with continental powers and empha perhaps the Middle East, the Asia-
sizing those with maritime powers (or Pacific remains fettered by centuries of
between relations with China and relations history. Asia, he concludes, has never
with Japan); between promoting self- recovered from the fall of the last stable
determination and promoting universal political order in Asia, the Qing Empire,
values; between protectionism and free in 1911. This is a serious misreading of
trade; and between forward defense and history that distorts Asias contemporary
Pacific depth. The Pacific Ocean does security challenges.
not provide sanctuary against threats Auslin fails to recognize that even
emanating from the Eurasian heartland, at its height in the fourteenth century,
he writes, if the United States itself is not during the Ming dynasty, the traditional
holding the line at the Western Pacific. Chinese order was as much a set of
rituals as it was a real political system
THE GREAT REJUVENATION enforced by Chinese power. By 1911,
Auslin, a scholar at the American that order existed only in the minds of
Enterprise Institute, also recognizes Qing mandarins who had retained their
the centrality of the U.S. role. He has sense of Chinas innate superiority even
created what he calls a risk map of though China had become powerless to
Asia: a users guide to the dangers stop the encroachments of Japan and
growing in the worlds most dynamic the Western powers. Since the end of
region. Asia, according to Auslin, is World War II, the stability and prosperity
riddled with unseen threats: economic of Asia have rested on the U.S.-led order.
stagnation, demographic pressures, Today, some echoes of the traditional
unfinished political revolutions, the lack Chinese order can be heard in Beijings
of regional unity, and, most dangerous desire to re-create a regional hierarchy
of all, the risk of war. with China at the top. The narrative
These warnings serve as a useful that China is undergoing a great
reminder. But the risks he identifies are rejuvenationa phrase that Xi has
not as unseen as he claims. As far back used more insistently than any of his
as 1988, when the idea that the twenty- predecessorslegitimizes the partys right
first century might prove to be the Asian to rule, but it is, at its core, revanchist.
century first began to gain currency, Auslins apparent nostalgia for the tra
the Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping ditional Chinese order blinds him to
warned Indian Prime Minister Rajiv the fact that Chinas ambition underlies
Gandhi, If both China and India do many of the regions tensions and
not prosper, it will not be an Asian explains why Chinese leadership will
century. Most Asian leaders have always prove controversial in East
recognized that unless they tread care Asia. The key contemporary strategic
fully, the continent will not succeed. challenge in the Asia-Pacific is the search
Managing the risks Auslin describes for a stable accommodation between
consumes much of the day-to-day the ambitions of a rising China and
politics and diplomacy of the region. the current U.S.-led order.
Lets stay together: Mattis and Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada in Tokyo, February 2017
Auslin laments that no effective eas was meant only to supplement,
regional political community, such as not supplant, the U.S.-led order.
nato or the eu, has emerged to replicate To secure peace in the region more
the stability that the Qing dynasty once effectively, Auslin proposes a U.S.-led
provided. Asias political diversity, he regional security architecture that would
writes, has so far prevented the region begin by sorting U.S. partners into two
from uniting the way Europe has. He geographically determined concentric
dismisses the Association of Southeast triangles. The outer triangle would consist
Asian Nations (asean)and its latest of Australia, India, Japan, and South
initiative, the East Asia Summit (eas), Korea. The inner triangle would connect
which brings together most of the coun Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and
tries in the region, plus Russia and the Singapore. In such a system, Auslin argues,
United States, in an annual gathering Washington should focus on promoting
as insufficiently ambitious and unable to a common set of rules, norms, behaviors,
replace the order of the Qing dynasty. and coordination among the regions
But the policymakers who devised asean leading nations.
TO RU HANAI / REUTE RS
in the 1960s never intended for it to Auslin never convincingly explains

replace the Qing order, or for it to be how such a design would be superior to
Asias equivalent of the eu. As Auslin the existing U.S.-led order or facilitate
himself recognizes, Aseans primary the strategic adjustments that are under
goal has always been to forge closer way between the United States and
ties among its own members. And the China. Nor is Auslins system especially
May/June 2017 149

Bilahari Kausikan
original, since its membership and goals throughout the region, especially in
are essentially the same as those of the China. The goal is not to change the
eas. Auslins recommendation that Chinese government, he insists, but to
Washington encourage larger nations make available liberal ideas and view
to play a more significant role in helping points that ordinary Chinese normally do
protect the rules-based order is precisely not experience and to encourage those
what the Obama administration tried voices in China struggling for civil society,
to do by supporting the eas. and to let them know they are not alone.
The eas is modest in its ambitions It is delusional to think that the
because it confronts a paradox: it works Chinese Communist Party would
best when it does not work too well. regard such an approach as anything but
As a result, the major powers find it a blatant attempt to undermine its rule.
occasionally useful, while remaining If Washington prioritizes the spread of
confident that it will not threaten their liberal ideas, it will damage U.S.-Chinese
vital interests. Would either the United relations and magnify, not reduce, the
States or China have supported the eas risks of instability in Asia. Too often in
if it thought the eas would constrain its the past, the United States has behaved
freedom of action? Would the region as if it enjoys a monopoly on legitimate
be better off if both or either of these values. This attitude has complicated its
powers shunned the eas? If the eas relationships and discomforted coun
has failed to persuade Beijing to abide tries that might otherwise be inclined
by a rules-based order and abandon its to be friendly.
preference for a hierarchical East Asian Last December, for example, Philip-
system based on the presumption of pine President Rodrigo Duterte said
Chinese superiority, there is little reason that Trump had endorsed his violent
to think that drawing new shapes on a antidrug campaign, which has left more
map will make much of a difference. than 6,000 people dead, and invited
him to the White House. Human rights
PIVOT 2.0 activists and many in the foreign policy
All three of these books were written establishment were quick to criticize
before the U.S. election, and the countrys Trump for what they regarded as his
foreign policy may now change dramat less-than-steadfast adherence to the
ically. Trumps overall strategy remains promotion of human rights. But engag
undefined, but some elements of the new ing with Duterte will not render U.S.
administrations approach have already diplomacy less effective in curbing
become clear. Trump will probably be extrajudicial killings. Under Obama,
less interested than most of his predeces moralistic pressures only hardened
sors were in promoting democracy abroad. Dutertes position and damaged ties
Many members of the U.S. foreign between the two countries. In Septem
policy establishment have expressed ber, for example, Duterte responded to
dismay at this break from American Obamas criticism by calling him a son
diplomatic tradition. Auslin, for his of a whore. Duterte is the current chair
part, argues that the best way to reduce of asean, reason enough to invite him to
risk is to encourage wider liberalization the White House. Trumps overtures may
have already helped mend the relation
ship: Duterte has recently downplayed
his earlier calls for separation from
the United States and said that he
will honor U.S.-Philippine defense
agreements. directory
Self-righteous posturing may feel
good, but actually doing good requires Subscriber Services
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policy in the Asia-Pacific, some of its
other policies may prove more damaging.
Pulling out of the tpp, for example,
undermined U.S. credibility. Trump
151

Bilahari Kausikan
wants the United States to project tpp with a hub-and-spoke approach, in

strength abroad, and most countries in which the United States (the hub) will
Asia would welcome a strong U.S. posture. strike bilateral trade deals with its
But projecting strength is not just a partners (the spokes).
matter of maintaining military dominance. In security matters, Trump will
It also requires preserving confidence probably have little patience with multi
in the United States, a task made much lateral diplomacy through forums such
harder by U.S. domestic politics, the as the eas and asean, which stress the
vagaries of which are not as well under gradual accumulation of small steps. But
stood abroad as many Americans might the Obama administrations emphasis
think. Washingtons withdrawal from on multilateralism was a historical
the tpp reinforced Beijings central exception, and Trumps attitude toward
message that the United States is an asean will likely prove a relatively minor
unreliable ally. issue. Far more serious are the potential
Still, the tpps defeat does not represent geopolitical risks of the new adminis
an unalloyed triumph for China, as trations harsh anti-Muslim stance. If
Gardiner Harris and Keith Bradsher of Islamophobia appears to become central
The New York Times wrote in November. to U.S. policy, the administration will
The Regional Comprehensive Economic alienate Muslim communities across
Partnership is now the only multilateral Southeast Asia, and the leaders of coun
trade agreement being negotiated in the tries such as Indonesia and Malaysia
region. Although it does not include the will struggle to justify their continued
United States, rcep is not a Chinese support for the United States.
initiative, as is often claimed: it is an The Trump administration has
asean initiative intended to connect reaffirmed U.S. alliances with Japan
the group with six countries with which and South Korea and has neither said
asean already has free-trade agreements. nor done anything to suggest that the
Four of the sixAustralia, Japan, New United States will withdraw from the
Zealand, and South Koreaare U.S. region and allow China to establish its
treaty allies. A fifth, India, is hardly a preferred regional order. As a result,
Chinese stooge. the situation in the South China Sea
Three rcep membersAustralia, will remain a stalemate: Washington
Singapore, and South Koreacurrently cannot force Beijing to abandon the
have bilateral free-trade agreements artificial islands it has constructed or
with the United States, and Trump has stop the Chinese from deploying military
given no indication that he wishes to assets on them, but neither can China
cancel them. His administration has prevent the United States from operating
said that it will seek a bilateral trade in the area without risking a major conflict
agreement with Japan, suggesting that that China cannot win and that might
even if it rejects multilateral trade deals, threaten the Chinese Communist
it is not pursuing an outright protec- Partys rule.
tionist agenda and understands that in The only issue over which China
Asia, trade is strategy. The Trump must fight is Taiwan, because the partys
administration may seek to replace the rule would not survive if Taiwan achieved
independence. When Trump reaffirmed suitan outcome that China would

the one China policy during his much rather avoid.
telephone call with Xi in February, some For almost 30 years, Washington
analysts portrayed it as a victory for the has allowed Japan to reprocess nuclear
Chinese. But the Trump administration fuel from the United States, permitting
has not accepted Chinas interpretation Japan to master the nuclear fuel cycle,
of the policyindeed, it cannot, because a privilege the United States has granted
the Taiwan Relations Act prevents it to no other country. In effect, the United
from doing so, just as the act constrained States has long acquiesced in, if not
previous administrations. Trumps tele- actively aided, Japans preparations to
phone conversation with Taiwanese become a nuclear weapons state. During
President Tsai Ing-wen and his subse- the presidential campaign, the U.S.
quent posts on Twitter, in which he media and the American foreign policy
asked rhetorically whether the Chinese establishment criticized Trump for
had bothered to seek U.S. agreement suggesting that he could accept a
when they built a massive military nuclear Japan and a nuclear South
complex in the South China Sea or Korea. But his attitude was not as
devalue[d] their currency, were irresponsible as some claimed.
unorthodox, but they made a legitimate Even if Trump wishes to strike a
point: if China expects the United States grand bargain with China, he will not
to consider its interests, it cannot ignore tolerate appearing to be weak. Campbells
U.S. interests. pivot may fade from memory, but the
Taiwan, for its part, like much of the Trump administration will still seek to
region, is nervous that under Trump, a project strength in the region. Under
more transactional United States might Trump, as under any U.S. president,
be tempted to sacrifice its interests in a East Asia will remain an arena of great-
grand U.S.-Chinese bargain, in which power competition. Ultimately, the
the two countries would divide Asia region will deal with the Trump admin
into spheres of influence. But such an istration the same way it has always
agreement is unlikely, and as China dealt with change: by adapting.
tries to realize its ambitions, it faces
an inescapable dilemma. To establish
its preferred hierarchical regional order,
Beijing must push Washington out of
the center of the strategic equation and
occupy that space itself. But if China
erodes confidence in the U.S. alliance
system, Japan might very well become
a nuclear weapons state. Japan already
has a stockpile of plutonium and the
capability to develop nuclear weapons
rapidly. If Japan acquires nuclear weapons,
South Korea and perhaps even Taiwan
would have strong incentives to follow
May/June 2017 153

important watershed in thinking about

Recent Books power and interdependence in the
contemporary world.
Political and Legal
Age of Anger: A History of the Present
G. John Ikenberry BY PANKAJ MISHRA. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2017, 416 pp.
The Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of What explains todays global disorder,
Connection in a Networked World when liberalism is under assault by
BY ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTER. Yale violent extremism, populist nation
University Press, 2017, 304 pp. alism, xenophobia, religious tribalism,
and antiglobalization? In this ambitious
T
raditionally, global politics has portrait of the current moment, Mishra
been understood as a grand sees all these problems as rooted in
competition among statesa liberalism itself. Beginning in the
chessboard on which statesmen play 1990s, a liberal democratic revolution
games of power politics and grand enveloped the world, spreading an
strategy. In this brilliant, imaginative ideology of free markets, individualism,
book, Slaughter upends this concep secularism, and consumerism. Paradox
tion and offers a different image: a ically, Mishra argues, that revolution
global web of networks where games both succeeded and failed: it overturned
are played not through bargaining but old social hierarchies and cultures of
by building connections and relation solidarity but left moral and spiritual
ships. The book dives deeply into vacuums in its wake. Liberal modernity
network science and the dynamics of has stripped people all over the world
nonhierarchical systems. Energy, trade, of their sense of community, identity,
disease, crime, terrorism, human rights: and meaning. Mishra also usefully
in Slaughters view, these are all areas reminds readers that Western narratives
of threat and opportunity that are now of modernity tend to minimize the
driven more by networks than by tradi resentment, rage, and mass violence
tional interstate relations. Slaughter that accompanied the spread of democ
calls on policymakers to develop a racy and capitalism. Still, modern
network mindset that replaces the Western societies are hardly the only
chessboards emphasis on states, sov historical sources of alienation, despair,
ereignty, coercion, and self-interest war, and genocide, and such horrors
with the webs orientation toward long predate the rise of liberalism. In
connections, relationships, sharing, the end, Mishra is better at capturing
and engagement. She argues not that todays Zeitgeist than at pinning down the
power politics is disappearing but that precise relationship between any earlier
it increasingly coexists with a more age of anger and the current one.
decentralized and shifting system of
networks. This book represents an
Recent Books
A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and Realpolitik: A History

the Return of Strongmen BY JOHN BEW. Oxford University
BY BASHARAT PEER. Columbia Press, 2015, 408 pp.
Global Reports, 2017, 160 pp.
The term realpolitik is widely used
In recent years, an illiberal wave has today as a synonym for power politics
swept the world, as constitutional democ and understood as the realist approach
racies have come under the sway of to foreign policy, a venerable tradition
authoritarian leaders. One result is that stretches from Machiavelli and
the emergence of hybrid regimes led Bismarck to scholar-diplomats of the
by strongman rulers who win office postwar era such as George Kennan and
through elections but, once in power, Henry Kissinger. In this fascinating
augment their executive authority at the biography of the concept, Bew reveals
expense of free speech and fair play. its rather surprising intellectual prov
Peers illuminating little book provides enance and explains its shifting role
a ground-level account of this phenom in grand debates over statecraft. Bew
enon in India and Turkey, revealing traces the term to the mid-nineteenth-
striking parallels between the two cases. century writings of a little-known
In both places, the turn to authoritar German thinker, August Ludwig von
ianism has proceeded slowly, as Indian Rochau. For Rochau, realpolitik referred
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and less to a philosophy than to a method
Turkish President Recep Tayyip for working through the contradictions
Erdogan have introduced business- emerging across Europe as the competing
friendly policies while chipping away forces of liberalism and nationalism
at the freedom of the press and civil gave shape to modern states. A few
rights. Both men have moved away decades later, the term entered the
from Western-style political visions of Anglo-American world, where it became
democratic rights and liberties in favor entangled with concepts such as
of appeals to nationalism and ethnic machtpolitik (the politics of force) and
and religious identity. With a keen weltpolitik (global power politics). In
journalists eye, Peer observes how the early twentieth century, the liberal
various kinds of peoplepoliticians, internationalist movement galvanized
shopkeepers, intellectualsexperience by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
these regime transitions. He finds that explicitly cast its ideas in contrast to
the most profound change is also the such concepts. But by recovering the
most subtle: a slow and sometimes origins of realpolitik, Bew suggests
imperceptible erosion of civic culture that its original meaning might prove
and political norms that undermines useful for todays internationalists, who,
the democratic spirit. like Rochau before them, are struggling
to reconcile liberal ideals with a rising
tide of nationalism.
May/June 2017 155

Recent Books
two decades. Their forecasts are bolder

Economic, Social, and than the nics and are built on specific
Environmental predictions about demographic change
and economic performance in many
Richard N. Cooper countries. Interestingly, they foresee a
trend toward greater income and wealth
equality as poorer countries grow more
rapidly than developed ones. The book
Global Trends: Paradox of Progress focuses especially on what the authors
BY THE NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE deem to be likely increases in the pur
COUNCIL. National Intelligence chasing power of urban populations and
Council, 2017, 226 pp. middle classes, the ways in which the
demand for food in emerging markets
World on the Move: Consumption Patterns will rise (and change), and a growth in
in a More Equal Global Economy demand for many forms of transpor
BY TOMAS HELLEBRANDT AND tation within and between cities.
PAOLO MAURO. Peterson Institute for
International Economics, 2016, 166 pp.
The Curse of Cash
E
very four years, the U.S. gov BY KENNETH S. ROGOF F. Princeton
ernments National Intelligence University Press, 2016, 296 pp.
Council (nic) addresses in a
report the important global economic, This persuasive book makes the novel
political, and societal developments it argument that highly developed coun
believes are likely to occur in the near tries should eventually eliminate paper
term (the next five years) and the longer money altogether, at least for large
term (the next two decades). This years transactions, and that they should
edition makes for a sobering read. It eliminate high-denomination notes
foresees slower global economic growth for example, the $100 bill and the 500
and increasing public disappointment euro billas soon as practically possible.
with the ability of governments to ensure Such notes are rarely used in ordinary
prosperity or even provide basic public transactions and often support criminal
goods such as education, health care, activities and tax evasion. The book
and security. The threat from terrorist also addresses some of the cash-related
organizations will increase, further under problems that todays low-interest
mining public confidence. Over the environment poses to monetary policy.
longer period, outcomes will depend to Paper currencywhich, in effect, is the
a high degree on demographic changes, equivalent of interest-free government
the effects of which the report declines debtlimits the extent to which interest
to specifically forecast, offering instead rates can become negative, which might
a number of imaginative potential be desirable under some conditions,
scenariossome negative, some positive. including those that have prevailed in
In their book, Hellebrandt and Mauro recent years. Although phasing out
also make projections about the next paper currency would introduce some
Recent Books
inconveniences, Rogoff argues that are mainly enforced at the state level,
the benefits would far outweigh the and a number of states use relatively
costs. Its an important and thought- lax rules to attract firms and capital. If
provoking proposal. secrecy jurisdictions were curtailed, the
world would be a much better place,
Murphy contends: democracies would
Dirty Secrets: How Tax Havens Destroy be stronger, and markets more efficient.
the Economy Reid makes the case for a complete
BY RICHARD MURPHY. Verso, 2017, overall of the U.S. income tax system akin
224 pp. to the ones that Washington carried out in
1922, 1954, and 1986. He favors lower but
A Fine Mess: A Global Quest for a Simpler, more progressive rates and the elimination
Fairer, and More Efficient Tax System of all deductions and exemptions. The
BY T. R. REID. Penguin Press, 2017, book makes a great contribution to this
288 pp. subject with useful and informative
comparisons of tax systems in the United
Murphys book aggressively attacks the States with the usually better ones found
worlds tax havensor secrecy juris in other rich countries. As Reid writes,
dictions, as he calls them. Their most the American systems are archaic, too
corrosive effect, in his judgment, is not complex, and too difficult to comply with,
to allow individuals (including criminals) and they invite convoluted and pernicious
and corporations to avoid or evade taxes, strategies for avoiding payment.
although that is important. Rather, the
worst thing about tax havens is the way
in which they prevent the kind of trans A Little History of Economics
parency in transactions that any well- BY NIALL KISHTAINY. Yale
functioning market requires. Tax havens University Press, 2017, 256 pp.
also erode trust in democratic govern
ments, which have proved unable or This engaging book provides a nontech
unwilling to enforce their own laws and nical introduction to economic concepts
regulations. Murphy and his colleagues by highlighting the innovations of leading
at the nonprofit Tax Justice Network thinkers from ancient Greece to modern
have helpfully ranked 92 jurisdictions timesfrom Plato and Aristotle to Tony
according to what each one provides Atkinson and Thomas Piketty. It ingen
in terms of financial secrecywhich iously links key concepts from economics
should not be confused with legally not just to government policies and the
protected financial privacy, which does workings of big corporations but also
not harm other members of society. to everyday family life and the day-to-
Vanuatu and Samoa are the most secre day functioning of small companies.
tive places, but the most important tax Reading this book is a pleasurable and
havens are Switzerland and Hong easy way to become familiar with impor
Kong. The United States does not fare tant economic ideas such as comparative
particularly well in this ranking; laws advantage, unemployment, aggregate
pertaining to corporations and trusts demand, inflation, and income inequality.
May/June 2017 157

Recent Books
helped Jews. Toward the end of the book,

Military, Scientific, and Moseley considers whether journalists
Technological might have held back some information
out of a desire to not undermine the
Lawrence D. Freedman war effort by demoralizing the public.
Casey touches on that issue, as well,
and points out that the relationship
between the media and the authorities
Reporting War: How Foreign was complex and that military officials
Correspondents Risked Capture, Torture, would not necessarily have appreciated
and Death to Cover World War II sanitized reporting: General Dwight
BY RAY MOSELEY. Yale University Eisenhower, the supreme allied com
Press, 2017, 440 pp. mander in Europe, for instance, wanted
people to understand that the fighting
The War Beat, Europe: The American could be grim and difficult. Caseys book
Media at War Against Nazi Germany benefits from a sharp focus on U.S.
BY STEVEN CASEY. Oxford correspondents in the European theater,
University Press, 2017, 448 pp. many of whom became dedicated anti-
Nazis after experiencing the Blitz in
Alamein 194041. He reveals the stress under
BY SIMON BALL. Oxford University which they worked and also highlights
Press, 2016, 288 pp. the quality of their writing. One standout
was Ernie Pyle of the Scripps-Howard
C
ould the reporters who covered newspaper chain, who was ultimately
World War II have been truly killed by a Japanese machine gunner.
independent even though they Arriving late to the Allied landing in
shared the dangers and discomforts Normandy in 1944, he described the scene
experienced by combatants and even on the beach: Men were sleeping on the
though their lives depended on opera sand, some of them sleeping forever.
tional secrecy? Moseley, himself a former Balls book on the Second Battle of
war correspondent, tackles that question El Alamein, which took place in Egypt
in a largely descriptive survey, reliant in 1942, adds a further layer of complex-
on memoirs, that still manages to cover ity to the question of how the war was
all of the wars theaters and relate the presented. In this entry into Oxford
experiences of reporters from all the University Press Great Battles series,
Allied countries. The book is full of Ball looks at how a range of sources,
striking vignettes: a reporter yelling including media reports but also the
Traitors! at his carrier pigeons as the testimony of German prisoners of war,
birds fly toward German lines in France have shaped understandings of this
rather than back to London, as they were battle. To add luster to a victory for the
supposed to; the American journalist forces of the British Empire that owed
Martha Gellhorn observing that many in large part to a German fuel shortage
of the people she had met in Germany and to the United Kingdoms superior
denied being Nazis and claimed to have airpower, it suited British officers and
Recent Books
journalists to exaggerate the prowess of that rape helps forge group cohesion by
the German commander, Erwin Rommel, breaking social taboos, communicating
thereby positioning his British counter norms of virility and masculinity, and
part, Bernard Montgomery, as his equal increasing mutual esteem among fighters.
in generalship. This was too much for In that sense, rape in wartime is as likely
supporters of the man Montgomery had to result from weak discipline as from
replaced, Claude Auchinleck, who felt political direction.
that he had been given insufficient credit
for his efforts during an earlier, more
defensive battle at El Alamein. Rommel, Religion on the Battlefield
for his part, was happy to stress his BY RON E. HASSNER. Cornell
material disadvantages. Meanwhile, the University Press, 2016, 232 pp.
Royal Air Force wished it to be known
that airpower had played a decisive role. This short but thoughtful book invites
And everyone, it seems, preferred to readers to reconsider their ideas about
minimize the contribution made by the role of religion in war. Ever since the
Germanys Italian allies. 9/11 attacks, the intersection of religion
and organized violence has been under
stood in ideological terms, with a focus
Rape During Civil War on extremism; unsurprisingly, Islam has
BY DARA KAY COHEN. Cornell attracted most attention of this kind.
University Press, 2016, 288 pp. Hassner wants readers to instead think
of religion as a set of practices that appear
This must have been a harrowing book in a variety of forms but have some
to research, for Cohen interviewed thing to do with the sacredand serve
not only victims of wartime rape but as sources of motivation and inhibition
perpetrators as well. Her case studies and also exploitation and provocation.
come from East Timor, El Salvador, He concentrates on major wars with a
and Sierra Leone and are backed up by particular, but not exclusive, emphasis
an analysis of data from many other on Christianity and Western attitudes.
civil wars. Her achievement is to shift He divides the discussion into four areas
the debate away from the question of where the practice of religion interacts
whether rape most often occurs as a with the practice of war: sacred time
result of a deliberate military strategy, (respect for the Sabbath during the
ethnic hatred, or simple opportunism American Civil War, Egypt and Syria
and to instead focus on what she calls choosing the holy day of Yom Kippur
combatant socialization. She notes to attack Israel in 1973); sacred places
that the prevalence of mass rape in civil (the special meaning of Jerusalem as a
wars varies (although it occurs in at prize to capture, efforts to attack Rome
least 75 percent of cases) and that many in 1944 without hitting the Vatican);
rapes are committed by gangs made up sacred leaders (the role of chaplains);
of members of militias who have often and sacred rituals (prayer before battle).
been forced into joining the fighting. He notes that in any conflict, religious
These observations lead her to argue practices can act as force multipliers.
May/June 2017 159

Recent Books
The United States Earning the Rockies: How Geography

Shapes Americas Role in the World
BY ROBERT D. KAPLAN. Random
Walter Russell Mead House, 2017, 224 pp.
As a dissenter from the determinism

Avenging the People: Andrew Jackson, the that fills many U.S. policymakers and
Rule of Law, and the American Nation academics with a faith that the arc of
BY J. M. OPAL. Oxford University history bends in the directions they
Press, 2017, 352 pp. prefer, Kaplan believes that history,
culture, and geography set limitsoften
W
ith Andrew Jacksons portrait grim oneson what human societies
now gazing down balefully can accomplish. The United States is a
at President Donald Trump great power, he argues in this short but
in the Oval Office, Opals analysis of ambitious book, not just because Ameri-
Jacksons career has more than antiquar cans have a successful constitution but
ian interest. Opal takes a bleak view of also because the United States occupies
Jackson and of the populism that pro some of the richest temperate land in
pelled him to the presidency. In Opals the world. The country comprises an
view, on economic matters, Jackson was immense mass of fertile land watered
anything but a populist: in fact, he was by the greatest network of navigable
a consistent opponent of the relief bills rivers in the worldrivers whose flows
that desperate debtors on the western unite the vast expanse between the
frontier introduced in state legislatures Rockies and the Appalachians into an
to protect their assets during the frequent economic (and therefore political) unit.
financial panics that marked the early But the size and variety of the country
decades of the nineteenth century. To have often made it difficult for Ameri-
Opal, what qualifies Jackson as a populist cans to unify around communal visions
was the ferocity with which he pursued of national identity and the proper U.S.
the destruction and dispossession of the role in the world. Kaplan notes that the
remaining Native American nations. The taming and development of the arid
greed of speculators, the land hunger of American West required new forms of
poor farmers, and the legacy of hatred political organization and a more pow
that generations of bitter fighting had erful role for government. That exper
created among white settlers were the ience, he suggests, might provide the
forces that propelled Jackson to the inspiration for innovative social policies
White House. Many readers will see that could promote social cohesion in
Trumps revival of a Jacksonian spirit the years to come.
as embodying and encouraging similar
forces. The question, both in Jacksons
time and today, is whether populism
can also offer something better.
Recent Books
Washingtons Farewell: The Founding The Wars of the Roosevelts: The Ruthless
Fathers Warning to Future Generations Rise of Americas Greatest Political Family
BY JOHN AVLON. Simon & Schuster, BY WILLIAM J. MANN. Harper, 2016,
2017, 368 pp. 624 pp.
For almost 150 years, the address that Not since the Adamses in the early years
George Washington delivered to announce of the republic did a family dominate U.S.
that he would step down after two terms politics the way the Roosevelts did in
as president served as a pillar of American the first half of the twentieth century.
politics and civic identity. Schoolchildren Mann has written an uneven but ulti-
were given prizes for memorizing and mately rewarding account of the rise of
reciting it, celebrations of Washingtons the rival Roosevelt clans of New York.
birthday featured public readings of it, The Republican Roosevelts of Oyster
and patriotic orators referred to it end Bay and the Democratic Roosevelts of
lessly. All of that is lost today. Avlons Hyde Park were not closely related by
timely book makes a strong case for blood: Franklin Roosevelt and Theodore
bringing Washingtons final public message Roosevelt were fifth cousins. Eleanor
back into the national consciousness as a Roosevelt was, in Manns telling, the
way of strengthening the frayed political central figure of the family drama. She
fabric of the aging republic. With input was Franklins wife and Theodores
from both James Madison and Alexander niece; her relationships with both men
Hamilton, Washingtons Farewell Address were difficult, and bad feeling between
called for amity between native-born and her and Theodores children turned the
immigrant citizens, counseled constant Roosevelt wars into a gripping national
vigilance against the dangers of foreign saga. When Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.,
meddling in the U.S. political process, tried to follow in his fathers footsteps by
and warned against the corrosive effects running for governor of New York in
of habitual partisan rancor on the insti 1924, Eleanor organized and funded a
tutions that make democracy work. Avlon group to drive around the state in a car
hopes that a rediscovery of such wisdom made to resemble a teapot in an attempt
might strengthen the union to which (which she later admitted was unjust) to
Washington dedicated his life; many link him to the Teapot Dome scandal.
readers of this powerful and well-argued Mann is better at chronicling the
book will hope the author is right. Roosevelts love lives and sibling rivalries
than at placing this remarkable family in
the context of U.S. history, and although
Manns portrait of Theodore contains
recognizable elements, the authors visceral
dislike of the man renders him a one-
dimensional villain. Even so, The Wars of
the Roosevelts is what Theodore might
have called a ripping read and deserves
a wide audience.
May/June 2017 161

Recent Books
The Great War and American Foreign Western Europe

Policy, 191424
BY ROBERT E. HANNIGAN.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016, Andrew Moravcsik
368 pp.
Hannigans latest book builds on his A History of the Iraq Crisis: France, the
previous one, The New World Power: United States, and Iraq, 19912003
American Foreign Policy, 18981917. Like BY F RDRIC BOZO. TRANSLATED
the earlier work, the new one is an BY SUSAN EMANUEL. Woodrow
essential read for anyone who seeks to Wilson Center Press and Columbia
understand the development of U.S. University Press, 2016, 408 pp.
national strategy. After the Napoleonic
C
Wars, the United Kingdom relied on its ommentators still do not agree
sea power, its manufacturing strength, on what exactly motivated the
and the gold standard to build a world U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
system that, by 1900, had become In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, senior
extremely comfortable for the United members of the George W. Bush admin
States. Hannigan argues that President istration sold the war as vital to counter
Woodrow Wilsons policymaking was terrorism, counterproliferation, democracy
more conservative than is widely believed promotion, and Middle East peace. It
and that both Wilson and his successors is unclear whether they believed any of
sought to preserve and develop the existing that. French President Jacques Chirac,
world order rather than build a new one. along with some other European leaders,
Looking at Wilsons policies in Asia, strongly opposed the war. In this book,
Europe, and Latin America, Hannigan Bozo relies on official documents and
contends that a quest for stability rather interviews with insiders to reconstruct
than a drive for revolutionary change how Paris viewed these developments.
lay at the heart of Wilsons agenda and At the time, pundits on both sides of the
that this approach continued to shape Atlantic spilled much ink on Frances
U.S. strategy under the Harding and purported anti-Americanism and prin
Coolidge administrations that followed. cipled stance against U.S. hyperpower.
Readers will come away from this thought Yet behind the scenes, Chiracs opposition
ful book with a richer understanding of was almost entirely pragmatic. He tried
problems that continue to challenge the hard to avoid a direct confrontation with
United States today. Washington and warned Bush that war
will have catastrophic consequences,
including on terrorism throughout the
entire world. Bush rejected his advice
with disdain. Yet ironically, the invasion
eventually brought the Americans and
the French closerif only to cope with
its disastrous consequences. Today, Paris
may be Washingtons most constant ally
Recent Books
in the fight against terrorism, spear Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I,
heading pressure for decisive military Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent, and
action in Libya, Mali, and elsewhere. the Obsessions That Forged Modern Europe
BY JOHN JULIUS NORWICH . Atlantic
Monthly Press, 2017, 304 pp.
The Novel of the Century: The
Extraordinary Adventure of Les Misrables There must always be an England, if for
BY DAVID BELLOS. Farrar, Straus and no other reason than to produce charac
Giroux, 2017, 336 pp. ters such as Norwich. Descended from
King William IV and one of his mis
Although ostensibly a work of historical tresses, Dorothea Jordan, Norwich has
fiction, Victor Hugos Les Misrables served as a successful diplomat, appeared
is in fact a panoramic expos of mid- as a popular radio show host, helped
nineteenth-century Francea society lead the World Monuments Fund and
defined by its contradictions. The splen many other charitable causes, and au
did memory of Napoleon Bonaparte thored more than 20 books. The most
remained omnipresent, yet his mediocre recent of these is a popular history of
nephew Napoleon III headed the state. four great kings born between 1491 and
Extraordinary new wealth was every 1500. The Spanish Habsburg Charles V
where, yet so, too, was abject poverty. was named Holy Roman emperor before
Rich men profited handsomely by crim coming closer than any pre-Napoleonic
inal and immoral means, including the leader to conquering all of Europe. He
promotion of dangerous industrial labor, tangled with Francis I of France, a true
corruption, prostitution, imperialism, Renaissance prince who patronized the
and even slavery. As Bellos shows, such arts and launched an overseas empire.
contradictions found expression in In an unprecedented act for a Christian
Hugos own life and career. Although king, Francis sided with Suleiman the
the novels hero, Jean Valjean, rails against Magnificent, who ruled over the Ottoman
injustice from atop Parisian barricades, Empire at its political and cultural height
Hugo himself led a company of soldiers and fought his way to Hungary before
against the revolutionaries of his own dying at the gates of Szeged. As the
time. Similarly, having written nearly English are wont to do, King Henry VIII
2,000 pages that movingly described the stood apart from European squabbles.
plight of the poor, Hugo sold temporary In order to resolve marital disputes, he
publication rights to Les Misrables for an famously renounced Catholicism and
advance of $5 million in current dollars founded the Church of England. The
arguably the highest amount ever paid fates of these four intertwined as they
for a work of fiction. This unique and befriended and opposed one another in
readable book conveys the chaotic efforts to dominate Europe. In the end,
fabric of French life two centuries ago however, none succeeded in imposing
more powerfully than most conven dynastic control and religious conformity,
tional histories. and ever since, European states have
been united only in their diversity.
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Why the UK Voted for Brexit: David The Pursuit of Power: Europe 18151914
Camerons Great Miscalculation BY RICHARD J. EVANS. Viking, 2016,
BY ANDREW GLENCROSS. Palgrave 848 pp.
Macmillan, 2016, 82 pp.
Everything about The Pursuit of Power
Glencross has been a prolific commen- affirms a traditional approach to history.
tator on the Brexit issue, and this slim Written by one of the most eminent
volume compiles some of his best writing. historians of Germany, it imposes a
Although it might have benefited from coherent schema on the story of Europe
more quantitative analysis, this is an during a period of 100 years bookended
insightful account of the referendum by two massive wars. In this period,
and its paradoxical consequences. A Evans argues, every country encoun
British government committed to leaving tered similar political, economic, social,
the eu is now trying to preserve almost and cultural challenges, even if the timing
all the policies the United Kingdom and details of their specific responses
enjoys under the union, except in a varied. In his lively, fact-laden, and
somewhat less advantageous form. A nuanced prose, Evans focuses on the
vote largely against globalization has relentless quest for power by nations,
empowered the government to propose classes, political leaders, scientists,
extreme deregulation and trade liber economic actors, artists, and everyday
alization. Labour voters have helped individuals. The search for power trans
ensure a seemingly permanent Conser formed everything, from the most
vative majority. Even deeper contra intimate acts in the bedroom to the
dictions result from a new style of creation of empires.
politics characterized by disillusion
with established parties and the naive
popular belief that referendums are the The End of Europe: Dictators,
most directly democratic of political Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age
institutions. In fact, direct voting pro BY JAMES KIRCHICK. Yale University
motes British nationalism in a way Press, 2017, 288 pp.
entirely at odds with the United Kingdoms
distinctive tradition of parliamentary Through engaging anecdotes, Kirchick
representative democracy. Government paints a dark picture of contemporary
by referendum undermines genuine Europe: rising anti-Semitism and Islamic
popular control wherever the public radicalization, a looming Russian threat,
proves itself both ignorant and manip the spread of Brexit-like referendums,
ulable. And now, politicians will be able the coming dominance of the far right,
to duck responsibility for the negative rampant nationalism, economic dysfunc
effects of the choice to leave the eu and tion, and the danger posed by hoards of
blame the public instead. immigrantsall of which, he warns,
could trigger the dissolution of the eu,
the collapse of democratic government,
and the outbreak of a war on the
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continent. Similar forecasts have been offers some reassurance. China faces a
issued like clockwork almost since the long road ahead as it searches for ways
birth of the eu. Yet over the decades, to forge mutually advantageous strate-
European democracy has not collapsed, gic partnerships with the major Latin
war has not broken out, the frequency of American countries. Chinas status as a
terrorist acts has declined, and Europeans relative newcomer to the region makes
have increasingly come to see Christianity its commercial relationships with the
as no longer essential to their national four countries studied here very much
identities. Even the great wave of refugees a work in progress. Chinese business
that swept into Europe in 2015 has already executives and diplomats are struggling
crested, with the number plummeting to adjust to fast-paced local political
over the past year and a half, in large currents, and they have already been
part due to eu policies. With the excep forced to learn from painful mistakes.
tion of the United Kingdom, no member Xu cogently argues that to up its game,
state has really contemplated exiting China will have to devise more sophis
the eu, and even the British are now ticated political risk assessments. Some
negotiating to retain as many eu policies times, callous Chinese state-owned
as possible. So perhaps readers should enterprises must figure out how to
not be surprised that, in his brief con honor local codes of social responsibility
clusion, Kirchick reverses course, tells if they want to maintain their access to
some optimistic stories, and suggests lucrative business opportunities. If China
that perhaps the end is not quite here is to forge genuine strategic partnerships,
yet. Europe, it seems, might still be saved. it will have to match its hunger for the
regions natural resources with a greater
willingness to import value-added
Western Hemisphere products and invest in infrastructure
and industry in the region.
Richard Feinberg
Rebel Mother: My Childhood Chasing the
Revolution
Chinas Strategic Partnerships in Latin BY PETER ANDREAS. Simon &
America: Case Studies of Chinas Oil Schuster, 2017, 336 pp.
Diplomacy in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico,
and Venezuela, 19912015 Now a professor of international relations
BY YANRAN XU. Lexington Books, at Brown University, Andreas recalls his
2016, 168 pp. extraordinary childhood travels in Chile
and Peru with his mother, Carol, a
F
or those in Washington who radical activist. In the early 1970s, Carol
worry that an aggressive China abandoned a comfortable suburban life
will exploit any missteps the and migrated with young Peter to a com
Trump administration might make in munal cooperative in Berkeley, California
Latin America, Xus deep dive into (where her path briefly crossed my own).
Beijings oil diplomacy in the region Later, she brought Peter along as she
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sought out more intense political strug politically disenchanted generation: he

gles in shantytowns and poor rural com looks back with nostalgia at his more
munities in Chile during the ill-fated idealistic youth, drinks and smokes
government of Salvador Allende and in heavily, and jumps without commitment
the highlands of Lima, Peru (breeding from one woman to another. But he
grounds of the guerrilla movement the nevertheless retains his sense of personal
Shining Path). Drawing on Carols integrity and his courage. The books and
extensive, reflective diaries and his own the miniseries faithfully portray Havanas
sharp memories, Andreas paints vivid, working-class milieus, whose inhabitants
mostly empathetic portraits of the many have become accustomed to surveillance,
grass-roots activists they encountered. opportunism, and official corruption.
Eventually, Carols radical feminism Guys who rob and get away with it piss
bumped up against Latino Leninism; me off, Conde declares as he uncovers
identity politics clashed with class illicit behavior in high places: collusion
struggle. She retreated to her homeland in drug trafficking, the misuse of offshore
but remained passionately engaged in business accounts, the theft of confiscated
local political struggles until her death assets. Postrevolutionary Cuba, it seems, is
in 2004. Rebel Mother is a warm, tender not quite as exceptional as its apologists
tale of protective love and codepen and criticscontend.
dency in a mother-son pair living in
extreme circumstances. Carols ultimate
triumph: both Peter and an older brother, Beyond the Scandals: The Changing
Joel, have grown up to become creative, Context of Corruption in Latin America
purposeful scholars. BY KEVIN CASAS-ZAMORA AND
MIGUEL CARTER. Inter-American
Dialogue, 2017, 68 pp.
Four Seasons in Havana
WRIT TEN BY LEONARDO PADURA Contrary to popular perceptions that Latin
AND LUCIA LOPEZ COLL. American corruption is only getting worse,
DIRECTED BY F LIX VISCARRET. Casas-Zamora and Carter argue the
Netflix, 2016. opposite: corruption is becoming easier
to expose, publicize, and punish. Latin
Four Seasons in Havana introduces the America is experiencing a healthy rebel
novelist Paduras Havana Quartet series lion against endemic corruption, espe
of crime thrillers and his legendary cially among the educated and informed
detective and (one suspects) alter ego, middle classes. Many factors have con
Mario Conde, to a mass viewing audi tributed to a new public morality:
ence. This magnificent, evocative Netflix international agreements that establish
miniseries was filmed in large measure higher standards of conduct; stiffer
in Havana, co-produced by Cuban and transparency and accountability laws;
Spanish companies, and adapted for the tough, well-equipped prosecutors; aggres
screen by Padura and his wife, Lopez sive, independent journalists; watchful
Coll. Conde, played by Jorge Perugorra, social-media users; and indignant, mobi
is middle-aged and emblematic of his lized civil society organizations.
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Economic downturns have also reduced overcome psychological obstacles such

tolerance for the flagrant misuse of as hopelessness and depression. The
public funds. Casas-Zamora and Carter authors emphasize the importance of
find that a battery of legal and insti quantifiable results and call on govern
tutional innovations are slowly making ments to seek out cost-effective tweaks,
progress against entrenched habits of coordinate poverty-reduction efforts
opacity, patrimonialism, and malfeasance. across public agencies, and design
Today, gross violations are more likely programs that will be consistent with
to be uncovered and successfully pros budgetary resources and bureaucratic
ecuted: even presidents and top-level capabilities. Public policies, they argue,
corporate executives are no longer safe. should also align with a countrys social
This study includes useful reviews of contract and shared political vision: an
major corruption scandalsoften easy goal to affirm in theory, but one
involving government procurement or that is too often elusive in practice.
the financing of political parties and
campaignsin Brazil, Chile, Guatemala,
Honduras, Mexico, and Panama. Eastern Europe and Former
Soviet Republics
Left Behind: Chronic Poverty in Latin
America and the Caribbean
Robert Legvold
BY RENOS VAKIS, JAMELE
RIGOLINI, AND LEONARDO
LUCCHET TI. World Bank Group, Everyone Loses: The Ukraine Crisis and
2015, 44 pp. the Ruinous Contest for Post-Soviet Eurasia
BY SAMUEL CHARAP AND
In this timely and well-researched TIMOTHY J. COLTON. Routledge,
report, World Bank economists survey 2017, 212 pp.
recent findings on the state of chronic
poverty in Latin America, which afflicts The Crimean Nexus: Putins War and the
130 million peopleone in five of the Clash of Civilizations
regions inhabitants. They also assess a BY CONSTANTINE PLESHAKOV.
growing array of policy interventions Yale University Press, 2017, 216 pp.
that are proving effective in combating
C
this scourge, although progress remains harap and Colton see the
very uneven across and within coun- Ukrainian crisis as part of a
tries. Some of their recommendations broader and more basic contest
echo the conventional wisdom that over Russias and the Wests roles in what
guides U.S. antipoverty programs: for was once the Soviet Unions extended
example, that well-informed social empire. The two sides and the hapless
workers can play a vital role in encour states caught in between have treated
aging the poor to access public assistance, this conflict as a zero-sum game; the
and that policymakers must recognize result has been a negative-sum game,
the importance of helping poor people with all parties suffering net losses. The
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authors trace the many discouraging Lenin on the Train

strands of this story with great care. In BY CATHERINE MERRIDALE.
their telling, nato enlargement, the Metropolitan Books, 2017, 368 pp.
199899 Kosovo war, the so-called color
revolutions in former Soviet states, the In most histories of the Russian Revolu
failure of the Obama administrations tion, Vladimir Lenins return from exile
reset with Russia, and the Ukrainian in western Europe to Russia in the crucial
crisis compose a pattern of mutually month of April 1917ensconced by the
destructive behavior that transcends the German high command in a sealed train,
significance of any one event. Hence, like a plague bacillus, as Winston
their recommendations do not offer a Churchill later put itfigures as a foot
specific solution to the conflict in Ukraine; note. But Merridale uses it as a focal
rather, they focus on how Russia and point, recounting in fascinating detail
the Western powers might get back to the eight-day journey from Switzerland,
constructing the kind of inclusive, jointly across Germany, through Sweden, and
fashioned European-Eurasian order they down through Finland to St. Petersburg,
once championed, at least in words. weaving in the tumultuous events unfold
Pleshakov covers some of the same ing simultaneously in Russia and in the
ground as Charap and Colton and does revolutionary movement abroad. With
not depart much from their equal- verve, she assembles a vast panorama
opportunity indictment. But he focuses of players and brings to vivid life the
more squarely on Ukraine and starts his drama and chaos of a world collapsing
analysis from the epicenter of the crisis: and a tragic future forming. The Lenin
Crimea, the region where he was born who rushes into this maelstrom comes
and whose color and feel he knows off here as no less driven and brutal
intimately. He first recounts the relevant than in other biographies, yet he also
parts of Ukrainian history, in which he appears to be more genuinely charismatic
believes todays problem are rooted. and, in some ways, more mundane.
Centuries of imperial rule by Austria, Merridale sees echoes in recent events
Poland, Russia, and Turkey left [Ukraine] of the ruinously myopic behavior of
in fragments, a country with a lack players and powers that stormy winter.
[of] historical definition, he writes.
Crimea has its own separate history,
which sets it apart from large portions Violence as a Generative Force: Identity,
of modern Ukraine, and Pleshakov Nationalism, and Memory in a Balkan
also presents that story in a highly Community
readable form. He offers no specific BY MAX BERGHOLZ. Cornell
recommendations for ending the University Press, 2016, 464 pp.
Ukrainian conflict, but he urges the
United States to stop trying to impose Some years ago in Kulen Vakuf, a small
the gift of freedom on divided rural community on the border between
nations such as Ukraine and to instead Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina,
adopt the principle of do no harm. neighbor set upon neighbor, and in
Recent Books
several bloody weeks, roughly 2,000 men, region, Cooley and Heathershaw detail
women, and children were slaughtered the looting of state coffers, bribery on
in barbaric fashion. The year was 1941 a massive scale, a labyrinth of opaque
although readers might have assumed a means for hiding assets abroad, and the
date five decades later. Bergholz, a ways in which corrupt elites use their
historian, stumbled across a blue folder wealth not only for personal excess but
in a Sarajevo archive containing some also to amass ever more political power.
startling details about the episode and Such revelations, however, are not the
set out on a long quest to piece the whole authors primary purpose. Instead, they
story together. Croatian militias began are intent on highlighting the extent to
the violence; Serbian and Muslim insur which the corruption of authoritarian
gents responded. But the bloodletting rulers in these countries relies on the
was not simply an explosion of long- complicity of outside abettors, including
simmering ethnic hostilities; neither Western lawyers, banks, and even courts,
was the violence ginned up by scheming and how such collusion erodes the power
politicians. Putting this beastly case of international norms and institutions.
under the microscope, Bergholz probes That pernicious impact on global gov
the role that ethnic identity played. He ernance makes this subject salient and
discovers that strong ethnic identifi this book important.
cation was often a product of violence
rather than a source; that ethnic identities
were shifting before, during, and long Milosz: A Biography
after the nightmare; and that the rigid BY ANDRZEJ F RANASZEK.
ways in which people tend to think about EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY
ethnicity in cases like this misleads more ALEKSANDRA PARKER AND
than illuminates. MICHAEL PARKER. Harvard
University Press, 2017, 544 pp.
Dictators Without Borders: Power and This is the English translation of

Money in Central Asia Franaszeks fine biography of Czeslaw
BY ALEXANDER COOLEY AND Milosz, the great Polish poet and 1980
JOHN HEATHERSHAW. Yale Nobel laureate. Milosz embodied as
University Press, 2017, 312 pp. much as any Pole the spirit, the tor
tured twentieth-century history, and
Corruption is no mere nuisance; it can the artistic sensibility of his country,
suffuse a countrys core institutions and even though he spent close to 30 years
dominate political life. On this subject, teaching literature at the University of
Russia gets all the attention, but virtually California, Berkeley. Franaszek, with
every post-Soviet state, with the excep exquisite balance, blends Miloszs life
tion of the Baltics, is as bad or worse, story with his intellectual and aesthetic
especially the five Central Asian states journey, enriching both with perfectly
of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, chosen fragments from his poetry and
Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In this other writings. Milosz was born in 1911
relentless expos of corruption in the to a well-off Lithuanian family, trained
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as a lawyer, and became a serious poet and chronicler of the Islamic State (or
in his 20s. He lived a peripatetic life, isis). He presents the players and the
displaced at first by war, later by profes- events in impressive detail, without always
sional ambition, then briefly by service offering quite enough guidance on what
as a diplomat representing communist to think about them. Both authors have
Poland, and then by flight to the West much to teach readers. They agree that
only to return to Poland for the last ten isis and its sympathizers are not heretical
years of his life, which ended in 2004. He zealots; their devotion is not a form of
was not only, as Joseph Brodsky said, one false consciousness. Their practice and
of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps understanding of Islam, although extreme
the greatest, but an intermediary whose and rejected by the vast majority of
translations brought the twentieth-century Muslims, nonetheless qualify as a form of
masters of Polish poetry to international Islamic orthodoxy. Both writers identify
acclaim. In Miloszs life, so well illustrated
the practice of takfirthe act of declaring
by Franaszek, poetrys confrontation whole swaths of Muslims (frequently
with history converged with the poets Shiites) to be apostatesas perhaps the
engagement, sometimes mystical, with most important feature of isis brutal
humankinds most basic values. version of jihad.
Wood plunges into the thickets of
extremist theology, giving it voice through
Middle East an eclectic sampling of its most committed
practitioners. They expound on the
John Waterbury caliphate, slavery, corporal punishment,
the end of days, and the coming of the
Messiah. Woods account is unrivaled in
the breadth and depth of its exposition.
The Way of the Strangers: Encounters With Fishman usefully stresses the seminal
the Islamic State role played by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,
BY GRAEME WOOD. Random House, the jihadist who laid the foundation for
2016, 352 pp. isis in the wake of the American-led
invasion of Iraq, before he was snuffed
The Master Plan: ISIS, al-Qaeda, and the out by a U.S. air strike in 2006. He is
Jihadi Strategy for Final Victory often portrayed as a coarse thug, but
BY BRIAN FISHMAN. Yale University Fishman reveals him to be much more
Press, 2016, 376 pp. than that. According to Fishman, Zarqawi
served as the inspiration for the influential
T
hese two books afford readers Egyptian jihadist strategist Saif al-
a look into the soul of violent Adels seven-stage master plan for the
jihadism. Wood, a national triumph of Islam. However, as Fish-
correspondent for The Atlantic, is a gifted man points out, the master plan antici-
storyteller who tracks down jihadist pates the unification of all Muslims, and
interlocutors around the world. Fishman, yet the practice of takfir assumes that
a fellow at West Points Combating most Muslims are beyond salvation.
Terrorism Center, is a diligent analyst
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A People Without a State: The Kurds From seemingly left everyone worse off. In
the Rise of Islam to the Dawn of Nationalism more recent times, the oppressors have
BY MICHAEL EPPEL . University of been different but the experience similar,
Texas Press, 2016, 188 pp. as the fiercely nationalist Republic of
Turkey, Islamic Republic of Iran, and
The Kurds: A Modern History Baathist Iraq and Syria became the main
BY MICHAEL GUNTER. Markus obstacles to Kurdish self-rule. More distant
Wiener, 2015, 256 pp. powersthe Americans, the British, and
the Frenchhave often joined in proxy
The Kurds enjoy a romantic reputation wars that have engulfed the Kurds, who
as doughty mountain fighters who have have seldom obtained a good deal. Kurdish
been denied their freedom and indepen fortunes seemed poised to improve with
dence by the Arabs, Persians, and the emergence of the highly autonomous
Turks who dwell in the cities and plains Kurdistan Regional Government in north
below. They number somewhere around ern Iraq in the wake of the Gulf War of
40 million, with the biggest populations 199091as close to a state as the Kurds
in Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Signifi have ever come.
cantly, much of the territory where large The story of Iraqs Kurds is relatively
concentrations of Kurds reside is rich in well known; Gunters book sheds light
oil and gas reserves. on the less familiar Syrian Kurds, who
Eppel and Gunter, both academics, number around 2.2 million and occupy
demonstrate clear but guarded sympathy three enclaves along the Turkish border.
for the Kurds and their national aspir Syrian Kurdish militias have proved to
ations. Neither sees Kurdish nationhood be the most effective of Washingtons
as immanent, and both view Kurdish partners in the fight against the Islamic
national identity as a fairly recent notion State (or isis) in Syria. But they are
developed by the Kurdish intelligentsia, also closely aligned with the Kurdistan
rather than as a manifestation of a deep Workers Party, or pkk, a group that the
historical truth. Eppel notes that the United States has designated as a terrorist
Kurds lack an urban bourgeoisie of the organization and that is anathema to
kind that has historically played a critical Turkey, a member of nato and a close
role in successful ethnonationalist U.S. ally.
movements.
Eppels account mostly covers the
Ottoman era. Gunters focuses on recent Debriefing the President: The Interrogation
decades, paying close attention to the of Saddam Hussein
period since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion BY JOHN NIXON. Blue Rider Press,
of Iraq and especially the Syrian civil 2016, 256 pp.
war that began in 2011. Both authors
depict the Kurds as living in a meat Nixon spent 13 years as an Iraq analyst
grinder. In centuries past, the Kurds for the cia. When U.S. forces captured
suffered under the Persian, Russian, and Saddam Hussein a few months after the
Ottoman empires, engaging in a series 2003 invasion of Iraq, Nixon and a
of shifting alliances and betrayals that colleague were tasked with debriefing
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the dictatorin other words, question historical process that will not be derailed
ing him in order to gain intelligence. even if China suffers a temporary eco
Nixons book is informed by those nomic or political setback. This has led
conversations and examines Saddams many analysts to argue that the United
life and reign, U.S. policy in Iraq, and States must either yield primacy to China
the role of the firebrand Shiite cleric or fight a war that at most could delay
Muqtada al-Sadr in post-Saddam Iraq. the shift but not reverse it. Rachmans
Nixon believes that the invasion was a view is more nuanced. Unlike the Western
mistake, but that view appears to have powers, which are united by common
little to do with his interrogations of values, he argues, the Eastern ones are
Saddam. Nixon acknowledges Saddams culturally fractured and rife with strategic
misdeeds but also puzzlingly asserts mistrust, especially of China. Moreover,
that no one knew better the dreams financial systems and other features of
and desires of Iraqis. He sees Sadr as the international order will remain wired
a lasting force in Iraqi politics but does through the West so long as rising Asian
not spend much time explaining why. powers fail to provide reliable rule of
Nixon also complains of an era of law. If Washington can skillfully manage
analytic mediocrity at the cia, which its relations with Chinaby no means a
he associates with the tenure of Direc- sure thingthe United States will not
tor George Tenet. During that period, have to match Chinas gdp or fleet size
Nixon argues, the agency allowed itself to maintain a strong position in Asia.
to become a tool of presidential agendas. Informed on history and up to date, the
book is a sprightly, pointed primer on
world affairs.
Asia and Pacific
Andrew J. Nathan The Souls of China: The Return of Religion
After Mao
BY IAN JOHNSON. Pantheon, 2017,
480 pp.
Easternization: Asias Rise and Americas
Decline, From Obama to Trump and Beyond Johnson practices what might be called
BY GIDEON RACHMAN. Other Press, slow reporting: a form of patient
2017, 320 pp. watching, listening, and asking that
produces deep insight into Chinas
A
s the Financial Times chief multifaceted religious revival. He sits
foreign affairs commentator, with a Christian prayer group, practices
Rachman has frequent access Taoist meditation, participates in a
to global elites. Drawing on numerous raucous yet spiritual mountain pil
interviews and reporting trips, he has grimage, and attends burial rites. As a
put together a striking portrait of a curious foreigner, he is welcomed by
weakening and confused West and a Chinese hosts who graciously instruct
rising but troubled Asia. The power him on their idiosyncratic beliefs. His
shift is the culmination of a long deft descriptions of these encounters
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distill the results of broad scholarly authorities require local officials to

research with gentle humor and quiet respond to citizens demands. In Tangs
emotion. Chinese Muslims and view, demonstrations do not signal a
Christiansespecially Protestants, legitimacy crisis; instead, they help
who number in the tens of millions generate legitimacy, which Tang suggests
are forging their own understandings they may do even more effectively than
of faiths that are centered abroad. democratic elections and a stronger
The religions with longer histories in legal system because they put officials
ChinaBuddhism, Taoism, and folk in direct touch with citizens. The case
religionare short on theology by remains circumstantial, however. The
Western standards but long on ritual surveys do not provide direct evidence
practices. In all these faiths, the Chinese that those who protest and petition are
are struggling to rediscover or reimagine the same people who express strong
their traditions across the historical support for the regime, or that non
chasm of the Mao years. For the time protesters support the regime because
being, a fragile mutual tolerance prevails they value the opportunity to protest.
between the repressive state and a
wounded society yearning for meaning.
Vietnams Communist Revolution: The
Power and Limits of Ideology
Populist Authoritarianism: Chinese BY TUONG VU. Cambridge University
Political Culture and Regime Sustainability Press, 2016, 352 pp.
BY WENFANG TANG. Oxford
University Press, 2016, 240 pp. The Vietnamese are usually seen as
consummate realists, opportunistically
Tang offers an intriguing explanation switching alignments among China,
for one of the biggest puzzles in con Russia, and the United States in order
temporary China. There are many to maintain maximum autonomy. But
protests over pollution, land seizures, Vu makes a strong case that ideology
unpaid wages, and the like, yet surveys has frequently guided Vietnams foreign
show high levels of public support for policy, at some cost to the national
the central government. Some analysts interest. Examples include lining up
think Chinese respondents are afraid with the socialist camp at the start of
to say what they really think, but Tang the Cold War, tilting toward China
explores nearly two dozen of his own during the early Sino-Soviet split,
and other scholars surveys to show that escalating the war in South Vietnam
respondents are not censoring them in the 1960s, aligning with the Soviet
selves. The puzzle of high regime support Union in the 1970s, and pushing social-
is partly explained by nationalism and ist transformation in the South after
economic optimism. But Tang suggests unification. One can construct realist
an additional factor: Beijing encourages explanations for these decisions. But
locally focused demonstrations and Vus deep study of party documents and
petitioning in order to keep in touch memoirs makes clear that Vietnams
with public sentiments, and central leaders, at a minimum, used ideology
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as a conceptual tool for analyzing issues, have taken up smuggling and human
as a weapon in policy debates, and as a trafficking across the Chinese border, a
language for justifying decisions. The process that contributes to a rising tide
collapse of the Soviet Union and tensions of petty corruption. The Stalinist state
with China have demolished the inter is rotting from within, but its economy
nationalist component of Vietnamese is doing fairly well.
ideology, leaving Vietnam free to define
socialism in whatever way suits its
national interest. Ascending India and Its State Capacity:
Extraction, Violence, and Legitimacy
BY SUMIT GANGULY AND WILLIAM R.
A Most Enterprising Country: North Korea THOMPSON. Yale University Press,
in the Global Economy 2017, 352 pp.
BY JUSTIN V. HASTINGS. Cornell
University Press, 2016, 240 pp. Political scientists are increasingly
returning to the disciplines original
Hastings details the ingenious ways in fascination with the state as an institu
which North Korea has conducted foreign tion, but today they use more sophisti
trade despite its political isolation. In cated empirical tools than the disciplines
the 1970s, the countrys diplomatic founders did. Ganguly and Thompson
missions used smuggling, counterfeiting, searched far and wide for the best mea
and weapons trafficking to cover their sures of the three key components of
expenses and send money home to state capacity that they list in their sub
support the ruling Kim familys lifestyle. title. When the measures are applied to
In the 1990s, after assistance from the India, the findings are informative but
Soviet Union dried up, Pyongyangs not surprising: India is an in-between
overseas missions and trading companies power, with high regime legitimacy,
sold heroin, methamphetamines, and low extractive capacity, and weak control
counterfeit cigarettes. In addition, over violence. They assess the states
North Korea supplied missile technology ability to overcome its deficiencies by
to Pakistan in exchange for nuclear comparing Indias economic, social, and
weapons technology, and Pyongyangs political circumstances with those of
diplomats in Europe acquired equipment previous rising powers and contemporary
for the countrys nuclear program from competitors. The sobering conclusion
companies in Austria and Germany. they reach is that for India to achieve
Even after the un levied sanctions its potential, a great deal would have to
against North Korea in 2006, state change in the countrys inefficient bureauc
companies disguised as private firms racy, corrupt and reform-resistant
found ways to access weapons technology politics, deficit-ridden budgeting process,
and equipment from suppliers all over fragile infrastructure, and weak educa-
the world; Chinese and Taiwanese brokers tional and health-care systems.
were especially helpful. Meanwhile,
Pyongyang lost control over ordinary
citizens economic lives, so they, too,
Recent Books
To Build a Free China: A Citizens Journey Africa

BY XU ZHIYONG. TRANSLATED BY
JOSHUA ROSENZWEIG AND YAXUE
CAO . Lynne Rienner, 2017, 297 pp.
Nicolas van de Walle
Xu is one of many Chinese who have

imagined a better political future for Madame President: The Extraordinary
his country and one of the few sent to Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
prison for working toward this goal as BY HELENE COOPER. Simon &
a legal advocate. While awaiting his Schuster, 2017, 336 pp.
release, scheduled for later this year, a
T
number of his friends have published his enjoyable and highly readable
this accomplished, engaging translation biography of Ellen Johnson
of his writing. The book provides Sirleaf, the president of Liberia
fascinating details about Xus life, his and one of the three winners of the 2011
ideas, and his civic campaigns and sheds Nobel Peace Prize, is at its best when it
light on the experience of the disadvan- gives voice to Sirleafs fellow Liberians.
taged and exploited in China. Xus most Cooper, a Pulitzer Prizewinning jour
recent and boldest initiative invited nalist for The New York Times, captures
people to envision themselves as free the local patois exceptionally well, with
citizens in a legal system that uses rights its odd syntax and curious expressions
talk but often treats them as subjects, (to know book is to be an educated
denying them the protection of the law. person). The book doubles as a fasci
Using social media and techniques nating account of the two murderous
inspired by movements such as Occupy civil wars that racked Liberia between
Wall Street, Xus New Citizens Move- 1989 and 2003. Cooper argues that
ment called out the Chinese Communist Sirleaf owes her electoral victories in
Party for corruption that enriches elites 2005 and 2011 to the women of Liberia,
and for denying equal access to educa- among whom she enjoys enormous
tion for rural and migrant children. popularity. Her success in office has
Revolution, Xu predicted in 2013, will rested on an unusual combination of a
break out in the blink of an eye. But good local reputation and excellent
when he is released, he will find China contacts in the West, many of which
an even more repressive country and the she acquired during a career spent in
world a darker, more uncertain place. international banking prior to her entry
eva pils into politicsa background that came
in handy when renegotiating Liberias
crushing debts after the civil wars. Still,
Cooper makes clear that no amount of
goodwill or connections can overcome
all the challenges of running a dirt-poor,
postconflict country with a long history
of poor governance.
May/June 2017 175

Recent Books
A Fraught Embrace: The Romance and Living by the Gun in Chad: Combatants,
Reality of AIDS Altruism in Africa Impunity, and State Formation
BY ANN SWIDLER AND SUSAN BY MARIELLE DEBOS. Zed Books,
COT TS WATKINS . Princeton 2016, 256 pp.
Chads history is littered with violence,
Swidler and Watkins spent the better from the wars fought among its pre
part of two decades studying foreign colonial kingdoms in the eighteenth and
aid programs in Malawi, especially nineteenth centuries; to Frances pacifi
those addressing the countrys hiv/aids cation campaigns, which ran from the
crisis. They have produced a savvy and 1890s until the 1920s; to the countrys
insightful book that focuses on the actors postcolonial history of rebellions at
involved and the culture in which they home and participation in regional
operate and, refreshingly, pays remark conflicts. In her insightful book, Debos
ably little attention to policies and argues that pervasive violence has fos
organizational charts, which are the tered a soldiering culture that now
usual focus of such studies. Through permeates the country and that has
detailed ethnographic observation of normalized armed violence, even in
the workshops, training sessions, and times of peace. For Chadian boys with
monitoring and evaluation exercises few viable employment prospects, learn
in which foreign aid personnel interact ing to use a gun counts as job training.
with aid recipients, the authors reveal Debos provides powerful evidence that
how miscommunication bedevils people ideological commitments and ethnic
who make good-faith efforts to work grievances motivate Chads fighters less
together but who have different interests than their simple need to make a living.
and values and face many constraints. In periods of relative peace, when their
Swidler and Watkins zero in on the skills are less in demand, these hired
importance of the local brokers who guns readily turn to banditry. Sitting
inevitably emerge as intermediaries atop this mess is Chadian President
between donor officials and recipient Idriss Dby, whom Debos portrays as
communities. The brokers effectiveness an amoral kingpin who has nevertheless
and commitment help determine the managed to curry favor with the West
success of aid projects, but donors too in recent years by offering support for
often misunderstand, neglect, or antag French and U.S. military actions in
onize them. This is a deeply empathetic the region.
book that explains the failures of foreign
aid even as it celebrates the idealism,
generosity, and courage of those who Understanding Zimbabwe: From
deliver it. Liberation to Authoritarianism
BY SARA RICH DORMAN . Oxford
In the years immediately following the

Lancaster House Agreement of 1979,
Recent Books
which converted Rhodesia (in which the lions. Much effort has gone into explain
white minority ruled through repression) ing the wars causes. Area experts have
into Zimbabwe (in which the black major tended to focus on complex local dynamics
ity gained power through elections), the that resist theorizing. Political scientists
country was widely considered a success and economists, meanwhile, have empha
story: it was even referred to as the sized more generic problems, such as
breadbasket of Africa. But in the 1990s, the looting of the failing states natural
the country descended into a prolonged resources and the grievances caused by
economic and political crisis that continues the exclusion of ethnic groups from
to this day, with the dictatorial regime of power and prosperity. Roessler and
Robert Mugabe barely clinging to power. Verhoeven avoid the either-or trap. In
Dormans excellent history of the post their telling, the First Congo War saw
independence era explains this reversal the replacement of the neocolonialist
of fortune by focusing on the increasingly Mobutu regime with a neoliberation
contentious relations between the regime state inspired by socialist, pan-African
and organized factions within society. ideals. The second war broke out when
Rather than view the Mugabe regime as former alliesthe comrades of their
merely personalistic, Dorman argues that books titleturned against one another
the state progressively ratcheted up its in a fight to secure the spoils of victory.
repression as economic failures began to This fascinating book is both analytically
undermine its traditional (and ongoing) sharp and empirically rich, drawing on
strategies of buying off key segments of a vast amount of primary-source research,
the population and pacifying others including scores of interviews with
with patriotic appeals that glorified the various high-level protagonists.
regimes anticolonial origins. stathis kalyvas
Why Comrades Go to War: Liberation FOR THE RECORD

Politics and the Outbreak of Africas The Prisoner Dilemma (March/April
Deadliest Conflict 2017) misidentified the state that Senator
BY PHILIP ROESSLER AND HARRY Chuck Grassley represents. It is Iowa,
VERHOEVEN. Oxford University not Ohio.
Press, 2016, 512 pp. John Waterburys review of Christo-
pher Davidsons Shadow Wars (March/
The two Congo wars that shook sub- April 2017) stated that the book uncov-
Saharan Africa between 1996 and 2003 ered no original evidence for its authors
constitute a tragedy of mind-boggling main argument. It should have stated that
proportions, with casualties in the mil the book uncovers little such evidence.
Foreign Affairs (ISSN 00157120), May/June 2017, Volume 96, Number 3. Published six times annually (January, March, May, July,
September, November) at 58 East 68th Street, New York, NY 10065. Print subscriptions: U.S., $54.95; Canada, $66.95; other
countries via air, $89.95 per year. Canadian Publication MailMail # 1572121. Periodicals postage paid in New York, NY, and at
additional mailing offices. postmaster: Send address changes to Foreign Affairs, P.O. Box 60001, Tampa, FL 33662-0001. From
time to time, we permit certain carefully screened companies to send our subscribers information about products or services that we
believe will be of interest. If you prefer not to receive such information, please contact us at the Tampa, FL, address indicated above.
May/June 2017 177

Is the Liberal Order in Peril?

Foreign Affairs Brain Trust
We asked dozens of experts whether they agreed or disagreed that the
postwar liberal international order is in grave danger. The results from
those who responded are below:
Strongly Agree Disagree

For the first time since While the unexpected
the Second World War, advent of Brexit and the
we have an American stunning rise of Donald
president who is skeptical Trump to the White
of trade, of the value of House in 2016 will put
Western institutions, and of the signifi- serious strains on the process of Euro-
cance of the Western military alliance. pean integration and the provision of
He may not succeed in destroying the global public goods by the United
postwar order, but he has certainly put States, this is unlikely to end the post-
it in grave danger. war liberal order.
ANNE APPLEBAUM is a columnist for MATTHIAS MATTHIJS is Assistant

The Washington Post. Professor of International Political Economy
at Johns Hopkins Universitys School of
Advanced International Studies.
See the full responses at ForeignAffairs.com/LiberalOrderinDanger

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