Six Stops on the National Security Tour: Rethinking Warfare Economies by Miriam Pemberton. Routledge, 2023, 224 pp.
In Six Stops on the National Security Tour, Miriam Pemberton offers a well-backed critique of the US military-industrial complex and the way it has shaped the American economy and political priorities over the past 75 years. Exploring how the military complex has affected six different locations around the United States, the book seeks to illuminate the Pentagon’s expenditure of funds in the name of national security while revealing a glimpse into the potential alternatives. Pemberton, a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, works to reduce overmilitarization and redirect the economy toward more productive purposes.
Since World War II, the idea of national security has justified a continuous expansion of the US military budget. Pemberton traces how the term itself—vague by design—has enabled the Pentagon and its sprawling network of contractors to consume trillions of taxpayer dollars. The United States military expenditure is more than the expenditures of the next 11 highest-spending countries combined. And yet, as Pemberton shows, such spending is becoming less about safety and more about preserving a status quo that has been established from the Cold War era. Pemberton argues that no matter the time period, the method of the Pentagon has been to keep throwing money at the problem. The book succinctly captures that in hot war, cold war, or no war, the United States has prioritized overly costly weapons projects instead of redirecting money that could be spent on the well-being of its citizens.
The book begins with an overview of how military spending became normalized following World War II. After the war, the United States never fully demobilized; instead, the concept of a permanent “national security state” took hold. As Pemberton suggests, this idea of the United States acting as a global police force entrenched itself into policymaking during the escalation of the Cold War. Successive administrations justified the sustainment of defense budgets by invoking existential threats—first the Soviet Union, then terrorism, and now China.
The book walks readers through examples of the destructive impact that excessive military spending has had on the United States. The analysis goes beyond the question of federal allocation, looking at six specific locations in the United States to demonstrate the ways in which the sprawling defense economy has entrenched itself in these regions and the long-term consequences caused.
In Los Alamos, for example, readers see the paradox of extreme wealth and persistent poverty. The Los Alamos National Laboratory, a hub for nuclear weapons research, attracts immense federal funding and high-skilled workers. Meanwhile, the surrounding state of New Mexico remains one of the poorest in the nation. Pemberton highlights how this lab acts as a kind of economic vacuum, diverting local talent and resources that could otherwise be invested in community-led projects. The result is a community dependent on military spending: one that booms during wartime and busts when funding dries up.
A similar pattern emerges in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, where chemical weapons testing has left the area economically bereft and environmentally isolated. The base was built in a remote location due to the nature of weapons testing. But that remoteness now hinders redevelopment efforts. When military priorities shift, the local population is left behind. Few people want to move there, and those who remain face a bleak economic landscape.
These examples show how military spending may bring jobs in the short term, but it rarely brings sustainable or diversified growth. Pemberton argues that while defense dollars create employment, investing in other sectors—such as healthcare, education, or renewable energy—would create more jobs and ones that are not dependent on the next war or the maintenance of billions of dollars of equipment supposedly used in the best interest of national security.
Another key idea Pemberton explores is the inefficiency and waste baked into the defense economy. For example, the United States has developed fighter jets with billions in sunk costs without even a functioning prototype before production. Pemberton contends that these procurement nightmares reveal a structural issue: defense contractors are often awarded projects with minimal accountability. The problem worsened after the Cold War, when the Clinton administration rapidly cut defense spending. In response, defense firms merged to survive, creating a small group of mega-contractors like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
As Pemberton points out, while this may have initially saved some money in the short-term, it also reduced competition and created monopolies. These firms now hold such power—and receive so much government support—that they are effectively too big to fail, reinforcing the idea that the ultimate bailout plan for the Pentagon is to always throw more money at a situation. Even when this blank check system has gaping inefficiencies, the solution is rarely to cut its losses. Their solution is to keep funneling more money at the problem either out of sunken costs or to fund the system until it works. The book shows that this absence of real market competition, coupled with a political system in which members of Congress fight to keep military contracts in their districts, creates a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle of spending waste.
This brings readers to what Pemberton sees as the greatest challenge to national security today: the climate crisis. Unlike speculative geopolitical threats, climate change is real, measurable, and already affecting global stability. Rising seas, droughts, and extreme weather are creating refugees and straining infrastructure. Yet the United States continues to devote far more funding to military readiness than to climate adaptation. Pemberton suggests that if Americans truly care about security, they must radically rethink US spending priorities.
Six Stops on the National Security Tour is a powerful and necessary intervention. Pemberton combines history and policy critique to show how the current defense economy fails to serve both national and human security. The book’s structure of focusing on specific communities makes the argument feel immediate and grounded, rather than abstract. If there is a limitation, it is that the book occasionally leaves readers wanting more concrete policy solutions. While Pemberton clearly advocates for redirecting funds toward green energy and social services, she stops short of detailing how such a transition could be politically achieved. The details outlining the climate crisis could be more fleshed out. A more explicit connection between the climate crisis and the already vaguely defined national security could also be made.
A quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower encapsulates the moral argument behind Pemberton’s critique: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed” (8). For Pemberton, the issue is not just about dollars and defense. It is about the kind of country the United States wants to be. Do Americans want to stick to the unsustainable status quo method of solving US problem by investing in war? Or should we seek solutions for the well-being of us all?
Cory Fan