## Metadata - Author: [[London Review of Books]] - Full Title: Adam Tooze: Great Power Politics - Category: #articles - Summary: The article discusses the National Defence Industrial Strategy released during Joe Biden's presidency, highlighting America's industrial power and the need to boost its defense capabilities. It emphasizes the threats posed by China and ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, underscoring a revival of Second World War-era production methods. The text also reflects on the challenges of Biden's leadership as he nears the end of his term, acknowledging doubts about his fitness for re-election. - URL: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n21/adam-tooze/great-power-politics ## Full Document You have reached your article limit Subscribe now to get unlimited access to our complete archive. Get an entire year of the London Review of Books for $49.98 ALREADY REGISTERED? [LOG IN](javascript:;) As sparks​ fly up from the welding rods, the beak of a bald eagle emblazoned on the welder’s mask curves menacingly towards the viewer. With comic-book subtlety the image screams: American industrial power at work. It’s an image of industrialism more redolent of socialist realism or the New Deal than of the 21st century. And yet there is nothing tongue in cheek about it. The image adorns the front cover of the National Defence Industrial Strategy, a document released at the start of what would turn out to be Joe Biden’s final year in office. Across its glossy pages, a roster of contemporary Americans weld things, move molten metal in and out of furnaces, and haul their bulky bodies through cargo planes. It’s *Top Gun* meets McKinsey, well-lit, diverse, globally minded, filled with clichéd 20th-century Americanisms and entirely in earnest. Presenting the document at the Pentagon, its author, Laura Taylor-Kale, underscored the need for the state to boost its defence industry as America’s adversaries build up their military power to levels not seen since the Second World War. She noted the intensifying threat of China upending the existing international order, and America’s continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself from Russian aggression and for Israel in its fight against Hamas. ‘This arsenal of democracy helped win both world wars and the Cold War,’ she said. ‘And long into the future, it can and must provide that same enduring advantage in support of integrated deterrence.’ These are the production lines that will feed the artillery battles in Ukraine and Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza and Lebanon: Second World War revivalism in a slick 21st-century package. If the Trump administration was the policy equivalent of pulp fiction, the style of the Biden administration was a blend of high-end Ralph Lauren and Andy Warhol. We can use the past tense because, whatever happens in the election, Bidenism is over. The project anchored on the long-serving senator from Delaware and Obama’s vice president had one term in it. Up until the last moments, his entourage closed ranks to deny this fact. They clung on even though, as Bob Woodward reveals in his new book, *War*, it was clear already in June 2023 that Biden was failing.[\*](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n21/adam-tooze/great-power-politics#) It wasn’t until a year later that they, unwillingly, accepted that a man born in 1942, during the autumn of Stalingrad and El Alamein, was not fit to run for president in 2024. The fact that his opponent wasn’t fit to run either is another matter. [Share on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Great%20Power%20Politics&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lrb.co.uk%2Fthe-paper%2Fv46%2Fn21%2Fadam-tooze%2Fgreat-power-politics&original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lrb.co.uk%2Fthe-paper%2Fv46%2Fn21%2Fadam-tooze%2Fgreat-power-politics)[Share on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?t=Great%20Power%20Politics&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lrb.co.uk%2Fthe-paper%2Fv46%2Fn21%2Fadam-tooze%2Fgreat-power-politics)[Email](mailto:?subject=LRB%20-%20Adam%20Tooze%20-%20Great%20Power%20Politics&body=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lrb.co.uk%2Fthe-paper%2Fv46%2Fn21%2Fadam-tooze%2Fgreat-power-politics)[Print](javascript:print();)[Letters](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n21/adam-tooze/great-power-politics#Letters) Send Letters To: The Editor London Review of Books, 28 Little Russell Street London, WC1A 2HN [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]?subject=Letter%20to%20the%20editor&body=Please%20include%20your%20name%2C%20address%2C%20and%20phone%20number%20so%20that%20we%20contact%20you.) Please include name, address, and a telephone number.