A World of Enemies: Americas Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden

A sobering account of how the United States trapped itself in endless warsabroad and at homeand what it might do to break free.

Over the past half-century, Americans have watched their country extend its military power to what seemed the very ends of the earth. Americas might is felt on nearly every continentand even on its own streets. Decades ago, the Wars on Drugs and Terror broke down the walls separating law enforcement from military operations. A World of Enemies tells the story of how an America plagued by fears of waning power and influence embraced foreign and domestic forever wars.

Osamah Khalil argues that the militarization of US domestic and foreign affairs was the product of Americas failure in Vietnam. Unsettled by their inability to prevail in Southeast Asia, US leaders increasingly came to see a host of problems as immune to political solutions. Rather, crime, drugs, and terrorism were enemies spawned in badlandswhether the Middle East or stateside inner cities. Characterized as sites of endemic violence, badlands lay beyond the pale of civilization, their ostensibly racially and culturally alien inhabitants best handled by force.

Yet militarized policy has brought few victories. Its failuresin Iraq, Afghanistan, US cities, and increasingly rural and borderland Americahave only served to reinforce fears of weakness. It is time, Khalil argues, for a new approach. Instead of managing never-ending conflicts, we need to reinvest in the tools of traditional politics and diplomacy.