Age of Danger: Keeping America Safe in an Era of New Superpowers, New Weapons, and New Threats

Hoehn and Shanker seek to understand why U.S. national security systems have often failed to keep up with events. The authors divide the problem into “the warning machine,” which should alert policymakers to emerging threats, and “the action machine,” which should then deal with those threats. Having interviewed many government insiders and Beltway analysts, they reveal how the United States is often let down by poor administrative coordination, uncertainties over who is in charge, and regulatory and resource constraints. The authors discuss a wide variety of threats, including those posed by China, Russia, germs, and storms. The book is consistently interesting on the government’s evolving understanding of these problems and how attitudes and efforts to address them have developed over time. The authors could say more about how policymakers should set priorities, given that governments will always have limited capacity, and should acknowledge that the United States is not alone in addressing these issues but has allies who might make helpful contributions.