Critical thinking review (two books) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical thinking review (two books) - Essay Example Both the books have sought with a critically intensive approach to shed new light on hidden official collusion in institutionalizing what otherwise seem to be the negative power relations. The US federal government structure assumes a highly hierarchical monolithic character with a vertically distributed system of layered rungs, with each being occupied by â€Å"a bureaucrat† who is responsible to the one immediately above him. The iron triangle is a phrase used by political analysts to describe the policy-making relationship between the legislature, the bureaucracy, more often known as government agencies, and interest groups It is regularly used to refer to the military-industrial complex, with Congress (and the House and Senate Committees on Armed Services), defense contractors, and the U.S. Department of Defense forming the iron triangle. Durant in Chapter two of his book titled â€Å"Greening, National Security and the Post-modern Military†, correctly identifies the inevitable interdependent relationship among the three organs of the state mentioned above. It is this interdependence that characterizes the very nature and scope of the problem which ordinary citizens call â€Å"the environmental degradation†. Irrespective of the compositional parameters of Congressional Committees on various environmental issues, the preference was to take the beaten path, so as not to upset the existing power equilibrium among different state organs. Though some of the suggestions made by Durant to overcome this dilemma are unambiguous enough, there are too many penumbral tendencies that he brings to bear on an otherwise well researched book. For example a credible argument that he uses – â€Å"the US military is being transformed into a modern fighting machine primarily due to the fact that China in particular and Islamists in general pose a threat to US national security†- seeks to extrapolate national security concerns into the unknown