Overview

Power and Complacency: American Survival in an Age of International Competition highlights the disconnect between America's approach to international competition and the realities of how its adversaries conceive of war. Through an examination of foreign ""active measures,"" Phillip T. Lohaus demonstrates how America's adversaries challenge and confuse Washington's responses and reduce the effectiveness of America's military interventions before they even begin. Lohaus weaves together historical analyses and interviews to illuminate how China, Russia, Iran and the Islamic State conceive of war and shows how these countries' conception conflicts with American strategic culture and current circumstances. The United States remains one of the world's top superpowers, yet since the 1990's the nation has been unable to achieve a decisive victory in warfare. The innovative and adaptive approaches employed by America in the past have given way to strategic sclerosis and complacency. Too confident in its power to dictate the course of events at a moment's notice, America has retreated from the subtler domains of international competition, which have the potential to shape conditions over the long-term. Washington has chosen to defend a weakly-defined status quo with conventional military strength, but it has neglected to promote its strategic vision using other tools of national power, whether they reside in the Department of Defense or elsewhere. Our adversaries have noticed, and they are now taking advantage of the United States' regional and functional blind spots. Power and Complacency defines the conflicting perspectives on America's international conflicts and possible solutions to recreating America's superpower strength. AUTHOR: Phillip T. Lohaus is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he focuses on special operations forces and intelligence policy issues. He previously worked for the US Department of Defense as an intelligence analyst. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The Hill, PBSNewsHour.com, RealClearDefense.com, and US News & World Report.

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9781640122260

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Reviews

The current international environment is characterized by competition in a way that is perhaps unique in human history. In this environment the binary of war/not war is increasingly useless. In this landmark study Phillip Lohaus uses the idea of strategic culture as a conceptual lens for conceiving of international competition. By illuminating the different ways great powers define war and actions short of war, Lohaus shows how strategic culture is a useful concept for analyzing the different tools that powers bring to bear in great-power competition. --Christopher Marsh, director of research for Joint Special Operations University--Christopher Marsh Power and Complacency provides the reader with new ways to think about the current global security environment and the future. Most important, it provides a warning about U.S. strategic complacency. Anyone who seeks to understand U.S. national strategies would benefit from this book. --David Maxwell, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies--David Maxwell

Author Information

Phillip T. Lohaus is a visiting fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a former intelligence analyst for the Department of Defense and has published numerous articles on defense and national security issues. A graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Lohaus is also an intelligence officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve.  

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