I’ve always thought it was pretty obvious that a lot of the pressure aimed at pushing the US and China into a cycle of mutual hostility was driven by the narrow interests of defense contractors rather than anything to do with national security, but it’s the kind of thing where you rarely get a clear demonstration of a quid pro quo. Kevin Drum, though, finds a really clear-cut example lurking in Thomas Barnett’s Esquire profile of William Fallon.
Needless to say, anyone whose substantive thinking about international relations implies the need to build vast quantities of new weapons systems to fight China with is going to find his think tank has plenty of willing funders.
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