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As the US-China competition intensifies, international security scholar Seth Jones warns that China is already well along the way toward mobilizing for war—while the United States remains on a peacetime footing.

Seth Jones is the president of the Defense and Security Department and the Harold Brown Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Before CSIS, he ran the International Security and Defense Policy Center at RAND, and he worked closely conducting field research alongside U.S. Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan.

In this edition of the Scouted podcast, we discuss Jones’s new book, The American Edge: The Military Tech Nexus and the Sources of Great Power Dominance, published by Oxford University Press.

The book takes a sweeping view — a century of how the industrial bases of great powers rise, fall, and ramp up again. Jones chronicles previous periods of U.S. mobilization that he shows were characterized by an intense synergy between the U.S. government and private sector – and the leadership of “rat catchers” intent on mobilizing the U.S. economy and technological power for victory. Going beyond statistics, Jones examines the stunning successes, and profound sacrifices, of the individuals led in these historic efforts—drawing broader lessons for the United States in its future geopolitical competitions.

We’re delighted to feature his book The American Edge on Scouted.

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