Lawrence Korb, the Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, presented a lecture titled "National Security in an Age of Terrorists, Tyrants and Weapons of Mass Destruction," on Nov. 10. The lecture was part of the Levitt Center Lecture Series titled "U.S. Budget: Power, Politics and Priorities."
Korb discussed a host of international relations theories, particularly emphasizing the differences between deterrence, containment and conflict, including pre-emptive and preventative war. He also discussed the Gulf War and the recent War in Iraq and how they affected the U.S. relationship with the global community.
He began his lecture by addressing the legitimacy of the recent international actions by the U.S. in Iraq and in the fight against the War on Terror. Korb agreed that the U.S. is "powerful enough" that they may not need legitimacy from the international community before acting; however, they may need the legitimacy from the international community if anything "goes wrong" during the war.
Preventative war, he said, is a "war of choice," as there was a lack of an imminent threat; this type of war was exactly what type of war the Bush administration chose to begin in Iraq. According to Korb, President George W. Bush has adopted a three-prong strategy to deal with international conflict. The first element emphasizes preventative war. The second is his long-term goal of making the Arab world democratic. The third emphasizes that the U.S. needs to maintain military superiority at any cost.
Korb then continued by discussing war tactics such as containment and deterrence. He said that deterrence and containment do work. This was evident during the Cold War.
He explained how the U.S. ideas of "American exceptionalism" and the spreading of democracy might seem like the right thing to do. However, stability not democracy should not be the goal of foreign affairs. Therefore, this should be the goal in Iraq, Korb explained.
The recent Iraq war is the first war to be: fought with no draft, to not cause an increase in taxes, and to be fought mostly on borrowed money.
Korb then offered his own solutions to contemporary conflicts, explaining the military actions alone are not the answer. Similarly, Korb argued, unilateral action is not the way to deal with international conflict. Rather, the U.S. should use a combination of deterrence, containment, and economics to maintain stability, avoid war and drain the enemy's economy.
The U.S. also needs to adopt a cooperative multilateralism, he continued; "it is not just about tying to maintain military superiority. We need to start listening to the rest of the world."
Korb concluded that President Bush has (probably) figured out (after Iraq) that preventative war is no longer a viable option to deal with the conflict in North Korea and Iran. He explained that these conflicts will not be solved without help from the international community, again stressing that deterrence and containment will be the best ways to deal with these conflicts.
An extensive question and answer session followed the lecture.
--by Emily Lemanczyk '05
