Reforming Defense: The State of American Civil-Military Relations by David C. HendricksonReview by: Gregory F. TrevertonForeign Affairs, Vol. 66, No. 5 (Summer, 1988), pp. 1115-1116Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20043587 .

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RECENT BOOKS 1115

POLITICS IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM. Edited by Lawrence S. Finkelstein. Durham (N.C.): Duke University Press, 1988, 503 pp. $65.00

(paper, $22.50). Professor Finkelstein and his colleagues look at all the actors involved in

the U.N. and its operations?not only member states but also international

bodies, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, high U.N. offi cials and others?all those attempting to protect their interests, gain influ ence and prestige, or serve their cause by playing the game of politics in U.N. forums and activities. As to where, after 40 years, the U.N. and its

specialized agencies stand in respect of their structure and functions, their usefulness and their limitations, one cannot find a better and more profes sional review. The authors avoid overvaluation of the place of the U.N. in

world politics and also the often popular extreme of dismissal and disdain.

THE RISE AND FALL OF UNESCO. By S. Nihal Singh. Riverdale (Md.): Riverdale Company, 1988, 137 pp. $25.00.

A thumbnail history of UNESCO by an Indian newspaper editor, who hits the high spots and main issues with cool realism and mercifully refrains from going at length into the budget battles and endless discussions. He is serious about the word "fall," even should America and Britain return to the fold, for "in today's atomized world it is impossible to have an inter

governmental organization honestly debate intellectual issues," much less banish war from the minds of men.

REVOLUTIONARIES AND FUNCTIONARIES: THE DUAL FACE OF TERRORISM. By Richard Falk. New York: Dutton, 1988, 211 pp. $16.95.

Professor Falk takes exception to "mainstream" definitions of terrorism and the measures often taken to counter it. The gravamen of his argument is that the terrorism of "functionaries"?of governments themselves, in

cluding the U.S. government?when they engage in violent action which harms innocent people (as in the raid on Libya in April 1986), is as culpable as that of bomb-throwing leftists or nationalist revolutionaries. He does less than justice to others who have thought and written on the subject, and his own ideas are not exactly original, but his book has something useful to say and says it forcefully.

General: Military, Technological and Scientific Gregory F. Treverton

NATO AND THE UNITED STATES: THE ENDURING ALLIANCE. By Lawrence S. Kaplan. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988, 256 pp. $24.95 (paper, $10.95).

Written as NATO approaches its fortieth anniversary?and thus not its "successor generation" but its "second successor generation"?this is as

good a short history of the alliance as there is. It covers the period through the deployment of cruise missiles and Pershings at the end of 1983, and it concludes with a perceptive look backward and forward.

IRON DESTINIES, LOST OPPORTUNITIES: THE ARMS RACE BE TWEEN THE U.S.A. AND THE U.S.S.R., 1945-1987. By Charles R. Morris. New York: Bessie/Harper & Row, 1988, 544 pp. $22.95.

This history of postwar arms competition and arms control between the

superpowers is vividly told and richly documented.

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1116 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

REFORMING DEFENSE: THE STATE OF AMERICAN CIVIL-MILI TARY RELATIONS. By David C. Hendrickson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1988, 152 pp. $24.50.

This slim volume, a companion to the author's The Future of American

Strategy, is a graceful summary of recent initiatives in military reform,

especially that led by Gary Hart. Moreover, it goes on to locate that debate in the larger terrain of the civil-military, echoing Samuel Huntington's conclusion of 30 years ago that "a lesser measure of civilian control and lower standards of military professionalism are the continuing prices the

American people will have to pay for the other benefits of their constitu

tional system." And Hendrickson's conclusions about the strategic impli cations of reform are provocative: it would "weaken one of the primary

pillars of deterrence in Europe . . . and . . .

deprive the United States of the military instruments whose use would be most consistent with the limited nature of American interests throughout the Third World."

HOW TO STOP A WAR. By James E. Dunnigan and William Martel. New York: Doubleday, 1987, 312 pp. $18.95.

WAR AND THE CHANGING GLOBAL SYSTEM. By William K. Domke. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988, 209 pp. $22.50.

Dunnigan is a specialist in war games and Martel a RAND analyst. Their

breezy book surveys 200 years of wars that happened and those that didn't.

Its conclusions are reassuringly commonsensical: very large wars are diffi

cult to get started, hence rare (only four in 200 years); ignorance of the

enemy makes war more likely, as does ignorance of the possibility of war; the military usually recommends against military solutions; and nuclear

weapons seem to have prevented major wars. Domke's data base is similar,

though his purposes are more explicitly theoretical: for instance, does

"interdependence" make war less likely? It does seem to; trading nations have been less likely to go to war.

NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION: AN AGENDA FOR THE 1990s. Edited by John Simpson. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987, 237 pp. THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY AND WORLD NUCLEAR ORDER. By Lawrence Scheinman. Washington: Resources for

the Future, 1987, 320 pp. That the proliferation of nuclear weapons is not higher on the interna

tional agenda is perhaps cause for modest optimism, and both these books

reflect that posture. The Nonproliferation Treaty formally expires in 1995, and that event is the point of departure for the Simpson book. It brings

together an impressive group of analysts from around the world; particu

larly interesting are Lewis Dunn's chapter on possible futures and Joseph Pilat's on a world without the NPT. Lawrence Scheinman examines the

strength and weaknesses of another key part of the nonproliferation regime, the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the perspective of one who

knows only too well that stopping proliferation is in the end a political task, not a technical one. That realization makes his recommendations for

improving the IAEA appropriately modest.

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