COMMENT: GREEN WARFARE: AN AMERICAN GRAND STRATEGY FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

11 Wake Forest J. Bus. & Intell. Prop. L. 243

The United States is in desperate need of more farsighted leadership. This country is in the midst of an identity crisis, having struggled to define itself since the end of the Cold War. As the world’s lone superpower, the United States has learned the hard way that along with its strong standing comes immense responsibility in terms of leading efforts to eliminate climate change, nonproliferation, and global poverty. Recent developments in international affairs, sustained economic woes, and partisan gridlock have divided the nation’s attention and resources. Lawmakers are currently playing whack-a-mole with America’s priorities, lacking both the vision and direction needed to combat the long-term challenges that await. However, all is not lost. Despite increasing (and oftentimes overblown) fears of “American decline,” the United States remains the world’s top dog in terms of economic and military power. What these fears reflect, however, is the very real sentiment that the United States can no longer sustain itself as the head of a purely unipolar world. Economies in emerging markets such as China, India, and Brazil have shaken off their lethargy and are growing in a manner which suggests a global realignment of wealth is beginning to take place, shifting from West to East and from North to South. Because this new wealth begets power, it is clear that the United States will face increasing competition in the coming decades.

In short, this Comment advocates an Apollo Program-type mentality in terms of “greening” American society from the top down—beginning with the military—in order to break the country’s addiction to fossil fuels. In embracing a broad-based “green” strategy, the United States can weave together a number of priorities heretofore thought irreconcilable: national security, environmental protection, and economic growth. In defining a clear “enemy” – our dependence on fossil fuels—the U.S. can unite various segments of society around a value-neutral and universally beneficial policy objective. By calling upon the resources of academia, the military, and the business community, the government can harness the institutions in which America has traditionally had the most palpable innovative advantages. By becoming the international leader in green technology invention, production, and deployment, the United States can help ameliorate the effects of its last industrial revolution while triggering a new one in the process.