The long 1990s, marked by the optimism of Pax Americana, reinforced belief in extended deterrence. No one expected that we would once again be discussing nuclear weapons outside the context of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). As a result, several generations of politicians were spared serious reflection on the matter. Considering the near total absence of…
Read MoreIn elaborating this critique, Todd is among the few European intellectuals to echo a diagnosis of technological stagnation similar to those of Americans such as Robert Gordon, Peter Thiel, and Tyler Cowen. The extraordinary development of information technology should have sparked a Promethean sense of agency across society and among elites. Instead, both leaders and people have, each in their own ways, lost faith in the future, with definite optimism giving way to debilitating passivism. Todd suggests that no past technological breakthrough has induced such complacency as that which has confined technological progress to such a narrow cone as IT…
Read MoreJust four decades ago, many saw Japan as the successor to the United States as the world’s “number one.” Ezra F. Vogel wrote in his famous 1979 book that “Japan has dealt more successfully with more of the basic problems of postindustrial society than any other country.” But following the bursting of Japan’s economic bubble and the subsequent “lost decade,” the Asian Financial Crisis, and the country’s accelerating demographic decline, Japan faded from global attention…
Read MoreThe breakdown of the neoliberal order does not mean that a new one has emerged to take its place. As the dogmas of free trade and marketization slowly become a thing of the past, Eric Helleiner’s book, The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History, seems timely. It describes a collection of ideas—marginalized during the Cold War—that constitute a third current of thought…
Read MoreA Japanese or South Korean attempt to obtain nuclear weapons would be risky in many ways. It could trigger a preemptive strike—by North Korea against South Korea, for example. Even if it did not provoke an aggressive response, however, it could result in unwelcome diplomatic outcomes. It would put a serious strain on relations with the United States, which serves as the “policeman” of nonproliferation. Thus a more likely scenario involves these countries adopting a nuclear opacity posture similar to that developed by Israel…
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