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Andrew Bacevich’s new book, On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century, is a collection of essays that take fresh aim at the target he’s been blasting away at for two decades: the U.S. National Security establishment. Penned during the Trump and Biden presidencies, the essays focus on the defense policies of these administrations. They were originally published in TomDispatch.com, an independent web magazine dedicated to covering America’s “forever wars.”
A military historian, former Army officer, and Professor Emeritus at Boston University, Bacevich insists he is a conservative (“not a Republican, the Republican Party is not conservative”), and some of his early writing appeared in right-wing magazines such as The American Conservative. However, his persistent and incisive criticism of U.S. warmaking over the years has endeared him mainly to those on the left, and his articles now frequently appear in magazines such as The Nation and Alternet.org. (He’s also contributed essays to The Daily Beast.)
While his main themes have remained consistent—the Pentagon retains a dangerously outdated Cold War approach to national security, the military-industrial complex is as powerful as ever—this book sees him tackling new concepts: Great Power Competition as the new paradigm, for example, and America’s need to rethink the idea of freedom. I talked to Bacevich by phone recently to discuss his new book, the policies of Trump and Biden, and why the preachings of MLK are as relevant as ever.