Monsters to Destroy: Understanding the War on Terror

by Navin A Bapat

Terrorism kills far fewer Americans annually than automobile accidents, firearms, or even lightning strikes. Given this minimal risk, why does the U.S. continue expending lives and treasure to fight the global war on terror? In Monsters to Destroy, Navin A. Bapat argues that the war on terror provides the U.S. a cover for its efforts to expand and preserve American control over global energy markets. To gain dominance over these markets, the U.S. offered protection to states critical in the extraction, sale, and transportation of energy from their "terrorist" internal and external enemies. However, since the U.S. was willing to protect these states in perpetuity, the leaders of these regimes had no incentive to disarm their terrorists. This inaction allowed terrorists to transition into more powerful and virulent insurgencies, leading the protected states to chart their own courses and ultimately break with U.S. foreign policy objectives. Bapat provides a sweeping look at how the loss of influence over these states has accelerated the decline of U.S. economic and military power, locking it into a permanent war for its own economic security.

227 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 4, 2019

Reviews

[Bill Driegert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely read, as we recklessly danced at the brink of war with Iran. Bapat, a professor of political science at UNC, outlines a well researched and detailed argument for the petrodollar-maintaining motivations behind the war on terror and how it played out in each recent conflict. The War on Terror has been a vessel for funneling support to friendly yet not ideal regimes and protecting our increasingly threatened American Hegemony. Read this if you want deeper insights into the motivations behind the ongoing tensions in the Middle East.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author looks at the war on terror as a series of decisions driven by natural resource economics; petro dollars. Interesting.