ABSTRACT
The usual inference that military issues have diminished in importance relative to neither economic ones, nor that public policy should be more concerned with the latter than the former. This inference is unwarranted for two principal reasons. The range and gravity of the military issues and problems that cohabit the post-cold war world are more numerous and more serious than is usually recognized. While the contemporaneous economic issues and problems are also substantial, many of them can and will be ameliorated by market forces: there is no self-correcting mechanism operating to mitigate military challenges and problems that corresponds to the operation of market forces in mitigating economic challenges and problems. One thing that's clear about this abbreviated list of major military issues and challenges is that there is no benign mechanism that operates to mitigate them, as there is—however imperfectly it operates—in the case of economic issues and challenges.
