Power Rules: The Evolution of Nato's Conventional Force Posture by John S. DuffieldReview by: Eliot A. CohenForeign Affairs, Vol. 74, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 1995), pp. 123-124Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20047402 .

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Recent Books

1952, "Mike" test?a 10-megaton blast

that scorched a site 14 miles away and,

according to Rhodes, churned up some

80 million tons of solid material. One

need not agree with his conclusion?that

"existential" or minimal deterrence set in

at the inception of the nuclear age, and

that most of the arms race reflected inter

nally driven developments?to find his overall account highly interesting.

Sun Pin Military Methods, by sun pin.

Boulder: Westview Press, 1995,392 pp.

$69.95 (paper, $18.95). Sun Pin is said by some to have been the

great-grandson of Sun Tzu, author of The

Art of War. With this translation of the former s writings, Ralph D. Sawyer, who

has translated and edited not only Sun

Tzus book but a number of other Chinese

military classics, has produced another

intriguing volume. The surviving manu

script is fragmentary, so Sawyer s able

summary, commentary, and 100 pages of

notes must bear most of the burden. Still, there is merit in plowing through this dense work, which offers another window

into Chinese military thought. The fun

damental concepts of ordinary and special forces, of chi (variously translated as

energy or martial virtue), shih (strategic

positioning or

advantage), and tao (the

way) appear here as they do in Sun Tzus work. As China finds its place as a great

power, the relevance of even these ancient

texts will surely increase.

The Military Revolution Debate:

Readings on the Military Transfor

mation of Early Modern Europe. EDITED BY CLIFFORD J. ROGERS.

Boulder: Westview Press, 1995,

387 pp. $69.95 (paper, $24.95). The Pentagon is agog with discussions of

a revolution in military affairs, the tech

nologically driven transformation of war

fare that some believe is now under way. This volume deals with a much earlier

period, the mid-sixteenth through the

mid-seventeenth centuries, from whence

the term "military revolution" originates. The author, a historian at Yale, has

assembled the best military historians of the period, including Michael Roberts, the most senior of them and the coiner

of "military revolution." The themes

here, particularly the impact of social

change on the conduct of war, repay con

sideration by contemporary students of

strategy. Reflection upon changes in war

fare during this period may also prompt reflection on various metrics of change,

including some (such as the transforma

tion of concepts of discipline and hierar

chy) that have resonance today. These

military historians, many writing at the

top of their form, have another lesson to

teach contemporary strategic analysts: the merits of cross-national comparisons of military affairs.

Power Rules: The Evolution of NATO's

Conventional Force Posture, by john s.

duffield. Stanford: Stanford

University Press, 1995,386 pp. $49.50. The history of defense budgets, force

structures, and committee-devised plans does not make for enthralling reading, but

it is nonetheless an important subject. This

workmanlike study, based on considerable

archival research, presents a solid survey of

the evolution of nato s force posture.

To order any book reviewed or advertised in Foreign Affairs, call 1-800-255-2665.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS November/December 199s [123]

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Recent Books

Although compiled by a political scientist, it is a contribution to the history of the

Western alliance. The author contends

that the development and subsequent sta

bilization of nato s force structure resulted

from balance-of-power and intra-alliance

considerations, and he makes that case

convincingly. A useful book that plugs a

hole in the literature on nato.

CORRECTION

In the July/August issue we listed the pub lisher of Strategic Assessment 1995, by the Insti

tute for National Strategic Studies, as the Naval

Institute Press. The correct publisher is the

National Defense University Press.

The United States DAVID C. HENDRICKSON

Fulbright: A Biography, by randall b.

woods. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1995, 711 pp. $29.95. An engrossing biography of the long-serv

ing chairman of the Senate Foreign Rela

tions Committee (1959-75), J. William

Fulbright. The junior senator from

Arkansas, who died this year, became a

thorn in the side of every sitting president,

yet his outlook is difficult to encapsulate with any of the customary designations. An early advocate of the United Nations

and a champion of the Atlantic Commu

nity in the late 1940s, Fulbright stood for limited containment in the "great debate"

of early 1951, arguing against both a

fortress America and a universalized Tru

man doctrine. Though he would later

come to think that the liberal internation

alism he had championed was responsible for the imperial adventures that he began

denouncing in the 1960s, he was never an

unvarnished cold warrior. Most of the

themes that would distinguish his later senatorial career?his distrust of "pacto

mania," for instance, or his attachment to

the principle of nonintervention?were

clearly adumbrated in the 1950s. In its

wide scope and illuminating characteriza

tions, this book is reminiscent of Ronald

Steels Walter Lippmann and the American

Century. Fulbright and Lippmann were

close friends, establishment dissenters

whose foreign policy trajectories were in

synchronous orbit throughout the Cold

War (though J. W. s engines tended to run

a bit hotter). They now have one more

thing in common: gifted biographers.

Isolationism Reconfigured: American

Foreign Policy for a New Century. BY ERIC A. NORDLINGER.

Princeton: Princeton University

Press, 1995,335 pp. $29.95.

Nordlinger, who taught at Brown until his

premature death last year, is an isolationist

with a difference. Like the old isolation

ists, he believes that the interventions and

commitments the United States under

took in this century made it more insecure,

led to complicity with evil regimes, and

deformed liberal ideals at home. He

departs from the isolationist tradition,

however, in wanting to promote human

rights and democracy through economic

sanctions and believes that the free hand

restored by shedding alliances would allow the United States to pursue liberal activism more effectively. The desire to

promote "international security, human

rights, and democracy," paired with the

conviction that this will never?well,

[124] FOREIGN AFFAIRS -Volume 74 N0.6

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