ABSTRACT
Is Paul Kennedy correct when he suggests that if ‘too large a proportion of the state’s resources is diverted from wealth creation and allocated instead to military purposes, then it is likely to lead to a weakening of national power over the longer term’ (Kennedy 1987: xvi) and ‘[g]reat powers in relative decline instinctively respond by spending more on “security”’ (Kennedy 1987:xxiii)? More importantly, for our purposes, are these insights useful in understanding what has happened to the United States in the post-World War II era?
