Power and Willpower.

• Author: Coffey, John
• Position: Book review

Text:

Robert J. Lieber, Power and Willpower in the American Future: Why the United States Is Not Destined to Decline, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012, ISBN-13: 9781107010680, 180 pp., $24.99.

In his Commencement Address to the Air Force Academy, President Obama rejected the notion of American decline in the world. "The United States," he declared, "has been, and always will be, the one indispensable nation in world affairs. It's one of the many examples of why America is exceptional ... just like the 20th century, the 21st century will be another great American Century." (1) The President's affirmation to cadets might have been inspired by Robert Lieber's compelling appraisal of the future of American power in the world. His book makes a seminal contribution to the exigent question of our time.

Lieber maintains that the claim of U.S. decline due to domestic and foreign difficulties is exaggerated. The country's problems are real, he grants, but he believes that the robustness of American society and an historical record of adaptability in overcoming past crises will prevail. His assessment of national power rightly gives primacy to political culture - the values, habits, and customs of a people that shape the kind of polity they are capable of having. Lieber takes his theme from the foremost observer of American national character, Alexis de Tocqueville: "The great privilege of the Americans does not consist in being more enlightened than any other nations, but in being able to repair the faults they may commit." For Lieber American resilience and ability to adapt and innovate provide cause for optimism. The stakes are high for America and the world. America is the "indispensable" provider of collective global goods. The alternative to American leadership is a far more unstable, dangerous world. (2)

Despite our current fiscal crisis, the author contends, U.S. material assets - our "wallet" - remain solid for continued global leadership. The nation's deficit/debt burden is serious, but Lieber offers abundant evidence illustrating a broad foundation of American strength and global competitiveness. Even our perilous dependence on foreign oil imports now appears surmountable with breakthroughs in natural gas and shale oil production, a critical point to which we shall return. As Lieber puts it, "the United States remains the one country in the world that is both big and rich." Continued U.S. global leadership is not a question of...