U.S. Pension Reform: Lessons From Other Countries by MARTIN NEIL BAILY; JACOB FUNKKIRKEGAARDReview by: RICHARD N. COOPERForeign Affairs, Vol. 89, No. 1 (January/February 2010), pp. 140-141Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20699800 .

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Recent Books

still relevant to the modern U.S. economy.

Keynes specified three important conten

tions. First, uncertainty needs to be taken

seriously in modern economics, and this

fundamental uncertainty?the unknown

unknowns?cannot be adequately captured with the statistical techniques fashionable in the study of economics. Second, once

dislodged from a satisfactory state, modern

economies cannot be relied on to return

smoothly and automatically to that state?

at least not quickly enough to be politically tolerable. Third, civilization cannot thrive

if efficiency and moneymaking are held as its highest values. The book offers clear and

cogent critiques of modern macroeconomic

thought, along with a brief but useful

summary of what went wrong in 2007-9.

different ethical principles involved. This discourse becomes an important element

in moving toward a more just society.

The Aid Trap: Hard Truths About Ending Poverty, by r. glenn hubbard and

William duggan. Columbia

Business School Publishing, 2009, 212 pp. $22.95.

The authors, both from the Columbia Business School, have a strong thesis: that

the best way, really the only effective way, to reduce poverty around the world is by fos

tering private business. They allow much room for charity, but they argue that charity should not be confused, as it frequently is,

with economic development. The foreign aid establishment, both bilateral and multi

lateral, too often makes this error and, by

operating through government bureauc

racies, impedes the growth of a robust

business sector in country after country. So

do the activities of now-fashionable non

governmental organizations, which provide free goods and services that could be pro vided by local businesses. The authors call for trimming back conventional aid and

substituting it with a new Marshall Plan, mainly for Africa. The original Marshall Plan worked in the late 1940s by providing dollar loans to European businesses to help them get back on their feet; the repayment of the loans to governments kickstarted in

vestments in infrastructure. Hubbard and

Duggan make a case that their program would work in a similar way

The Idea of Justice, by amartya sen.

Belknap Press, 2009, 496 pp. $29.95. Political philosophers since Aristotle have wrestled with the concept of justice; although justice is universally desired, it is difficult to agree on exactly what it is. In this book, the Nobel Prize-winning

Harvard economist and philosopher Sen departs from much of the recent

philosophical discourse on this vast subject, usefully drawing not only on Western

philosophy but also on the wisdom of ancient Asian thinkers. Sen rejects the

social-contract approach to justice in favor

of a results-based one that relies on an

understanding of generally acknowledged injustices?without attempting to design a perfecdy just society, as the social-contract

approach typically does. Also, he accepts that there may be different but equally legitimate views of what is just or unjust in particular cases. Instead of trying to

adjudicate definitively among them, Sen

encourages reasoned discourse about the

U.S. Pension Reform: Lessons From Other

Countries, by martin neil baily

and jacob funk kirkegaard.

Peterson Institute for International

Economics, 2009, 384 pp. $26.95. The debate over medical care in the United

[140] FOREIGN AFFAIRS Volume 89 No. 1

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Recent Books

States has crowded out the debate over

Social Security, but the future fiscal viability of the latter has yet to be solved. With

increasing longevity everywhere, often

accompanied by low birthrates, the viability of public pension systems is a serious concern in all rich countries. This book

compares the U.S. system to others (it fares rather well) and explores whether reforms in other countries are applicable to

the United States. The authors conclude,

partly on the basis of international experi ence, that the U.S. system can be made

fiscally viable by gradually increasing the

age of eligibility for retirement (including early retirement), by increasing payments into Social Security by the wealthy, and, as necessary, by increasing taxes. They also

support a voluntary, government-sponsored, and privately managed retirement-savings

program for low- and middle-income

families?as an addition to, not a substitute

for, Social Security.

outpace the development of actual terror

ism. Now may be the era of diminishing marginal returns. One conclusion from

English's thoughtful, informed meditation on the state of terrorism research is that

there is not a lot new to say (and even here the field could have been spared another

disquisition on the problems of terminol

ogy). It is not evident that the general lessons for counterterrorism that have

come to the fore in dealing with Islamist terrorism are that different from those

that emerged from dealing with Northern Ireland (on which English has written

extensively). The basic need is to maintain a sense of perspective and understand that

although particular campaigns come and

go, political violence is a continuing pos sibility. English argues that governments must accept that the military has a limited role to play when dealing with the violence but that good intelligence will always be necessary.

Another author with an Irish back

ground is Horgan. His topic, asking why terrorists disengage, is a good one, and is far less explored than the question of why they engage in the first place. Unfortunately, as a pilot project for something bigger, this book has a rather interim and tentative

feel. After an earnest section on method

ology and a decent overview of the current

debates over deradicalization, there are

eight case studies of individuals, represent

ing only a small sample of the interviews

Horgan has conducted, and these are only

moderately interesting. It is hard to discern a single pattern of disillusion. What does come across is that whatever terrorists'

commitment to an underlying ideology, their actual experience of perpetrating violence affects them in different ways and can lead to disaffection.

Military, Scientific, and Technological

LAWRENCE D. FREEDMAN

Terrorism: How to Respond, by Richard

English. Oxford University Press,

2009,188 pp. $24.95.

Walking Away From Terrorism: Accounts of Disengagement From Radical and

Extremist Movements, by john horgan. Routledge, 2009, 216 pp.

$135.00 (paper, $36.95). Radical, Religious, and Violent: The New

Economics of Terrorism, by eli berman.

MIT Press, 2009,280 pp. $24.95. The developmen t of the field of terrorism studies has, in recent years, appeared to

FOREIGN AFFAIRS January/February 2010 [141]

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