Making Endless War

Over the past quarter-century, the US has used its globe-spanning military presence to conduct operations, launch invasions, and drop bombs in dozens of countries around the world. Yet, as war wages, everyday life for most Americans continues largely without interruptions. There has been no draft, no war tax, no rationing, and no mobilization. How can the US wage endless war with little participation from its people or disruption to their everyday lives? Reeling from the crisis catalyzed by defeat in Vietnam, military-industrial elites abolished the draft, reorganized armaments production, and embraced just-in-time supply chains. These changes eroded the power and reduced the number of working people involved in war-making. At the same time, this restructuring yielded a deep articulation of war- and profit-making as it interacted with neoliberal globalization and financialization. The result was an organization of war-making that places few social and political constraints on war. Tracing the historical trajectory of and global contestation over these transformations, this book demonstrates how the same social structures that enable expansive war have also yielded labor unrest, supply chain woes, depleted weapons stockpiles, a hollowed-out industrial-base, and crumbling international alliances. This situation has brought the US and its war-making apparatus to the brink of crisis—and may open opportunities for those who wish to bring an end to endless war.