Weary Policeman: American Power in an Age of Austerity (Adelphi series)

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Weary policeman: American power in an age of austerity

Dana H. Allin and Erik Jones
The struggle not just to define but also to preserve American power is no modern phenomenon: questions of intervention and projection have dominated the nation’s politics from the days of the Founding Fathers. Then, as now, the old centres of power were shifting. Nor is economic stress an unfamiliar factor for policymakers. As another presidential election looms, America’s role in global affairs and security has emerged as one of the campaign’s great battle lines.
But in 2012, domestic political and economic problems are compounded by the ongoing financial crisis in Europe, which, together with the overstretch and fatigue from two wars, has sapped the strength of America’s chief allies. While it may urge its NATO partners to shoulder more of the security burden, the US finds them less willing and occasionally unable to share the strain. This Adelphi examines the myriad challenges America must confront if it is to uphold and spread its values and interests.

‘Is America a declining empire, or the indispensible nation? Or is it both, the essential pillar of a world order no longer able to take the strain? This masterful volume traces the debate over the nature and uses of American power from the Founding Fathers to the 2012 presidential campaign. A sober assessment regarding the prospect for continued American leadership in an era of rising debt, lowered growth and political deadlock, it demands careful consideration by aspirant leaders and potential followers alike.’
James Dobbins, Director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center and former Assistant Secretary of State for Europe.

‘Allin and Jones do an expert job of outlining the obstacles America faces in a world where “collective action” is increasingly difficult to attain. By outlining the United States’ global leadership dilemma from every angle – historical, international, economic and political – Weary Policeman is a vital resource in shifting today’s academic debate from an erroneous argument of American decline into a far more useful question: How will America lead going forward? The book is well-reasoned, careful in its analysis, and valuable for the questions it frames and the answers
it provides.’
Ian Bremmer, President, Eurasia Group

‘At the opening of the twenty-first century many feared an over-mighty America. Now the risk to the international order is of a US that retreats from its role as leader and guardian of the global commons. In an insightful and readable study, Dana Allin and Erik Jones chart the potential of and the constraints on American power.’
Philip Stephens, Associate Editor, Financial Times

‘The authors ask the most important international question facing the winner of the 2012 American presidential election: Can America exert its accustomed global leadership in a world of declining American resources, divisive domestic politics and in a world that is less inclined to cooperate even on shared objectives? This timely and well-written book is required reading for understanding the foreign-policy debate likely to dominate the next four years and beyond.’
David C. Unger, author of The Emergency State

Dana Allin is Senior Fellow for US Foreign Policy and Transatlantic Affairs, IISS, Editor, Survival and Adjunct Professor at the SAIS Bologna Center.
Erik Jones is director of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research, Professor of European Studies at the SAIS Bologna Center and Contributing Editor, Survival.