Do not Wait for the Next War: The American Strategy

Wesley K. Clark’s book, Don’t Wait for the Next War, is a comprehensive strategy for fostering long-term American growth and world power status based on the energy industry and without war.American national strategy has always been a response to a crisis or war (such as World War I or the Great Depression), and the US always got into trouble when it was not performing under pressure (e.g. in the years after the Cold War). According to Clark, the biggest question is whether a strategy not based on war can be devised. The first step toward this would be for the US to look into the mirror, i.e. to tackle its domestic issues rather than the external problems. Clark lists five overlapping challenges faced by the US: the fight against terrorism, boosting cyber security, the regulatory reform of the American economy, rethinking the foreign policy toward China and reviewing the key role of energy in the 21st century…