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CIAO DATE: 06/04
Guns, Butter, and the War on Terror
On The Issues
April 2004
Christopher DeMuth
Abstract
War mobilization can lead to incontinent government growth, jeopardizing the economic dynamism upon which a successful war effort ultimately depends. This is a gathering threat to our ability to sustain a "generational commitment" to defeating terrorism.
Wartime can be bad times for economic policy. It's not just that military mobilization (and, this time around, elaborate homeland security measures) imposes heavy burdens on the private economy. The larger problem is that the political demands of war can cause government to grow across the board. This tendency has been conspicuous in the first years of the war on terror.
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