NICHOLAS X. RIZOPOULOS
291
where contact with the West has produced more chaos than growth
.... It is, in a sense, the result of failed and incomplete modernization."
IF
TIIERE IS A CONSENSUS
among the volume's contributors, it is that
America is in for the long haul in this war against terrorism, wheth er we
like it or not. There is no "quick fix" in sight; nor can we do all that
much to make ourselves suddenly more "popular" abroad, or less
resented, envied, and mi su nderstood.
Closer
to
home, the full ex tent of the economic repercussions of 911
1
is still difficult
to
gauge. Martin N. Baily ("Stirred But Not Shaken") is
rather upbeat, arguing that "the terrorist attacks exacerbated economic
problems that were already apparent," but that "the fundamentals of
the U.S. economy are very strong." He is probably right. On the other
hand, Baily does zero in on the dange r of soaring insurance premiums,
seeing this development as a worrisome "obstacle to invigorating the
economy." He recommends that we take a leaf out of the British gov–
ernment's book (a nd its painful experience in dealing with IRA terror–
ism for more than thirty yea rs ): Washington should run "a risk pool to
provide payments in the event of large economic losses from te rrorism .
. . . Everyone pays into the pool, and if future losses are not great, there
is enough money in the pool
to
pay all claims.
If
there is a massive claim,
the government steps in and supplements the pool." An imaginative and
worthwhile suggestion.
Also closer to home, in discussing how American society will respond
to this new kind of war, Alan Wolfe ("The Home Front") rightly predicts
that, whatever extraordinary measures the Justice Department and the
FBI ma y he forced to take in order
to
improve domestic security, "we are
unlikely to see substantial encroachments on freedom as we mobilize for
a respo nse to terror." This is a healthy corrective to the fuss being made
by civil libertarians who-putting aside whatever concerns many of us
mi ght well have about the proper workings of any military tribunals set
up specificall y
to
try foreign terrorists-automatically harbor suspicions
about th e federal government, especially under a conservative Republi–
can president, at times imagining it to be but one small step removed
from subverting the Constitution. Such alarm is misplaced: this country's
democratic institutions and legal fabric are not endangered.
Still, as Fareed Zakaria cogently argues in the concluding essay ("The
Return of History" ), "one change that is likely to endure is the renewed
power of government. The state is back, and for the oldest reason in the
book: the provision of security." So, too, "counterterrorism will move
from th e rea 1m of la w en forcement
to
tha t of national security." And" if
