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As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama criticized the George W.
Bush administration for its unrestrained actions in matters of
national security. Yet President Obama has not fulfilled candidate
Obama's promise to restore the rule of law and make a clean break
with his predecessor. In Power without Constraint Chris Edelson
offers a thorough, extensive comparison of the Bush and Obama
administrations' national security policies, arguing that both have
asserted more executive authority than previous presidents. He
examines once-secret Justice Department memos in which President
Bush's officials claimed for the executive branch plenary
unilateral authority to use military force in response to threats
of terrorism, as well as the power to set aside laws made by
Congress, even criminal laws prohibiting torture and warrantless
surveillance. He acknowledges that President Obama and his
officials have not claimed the authority to set aside criminal
laws, relying on softer rhetoric and toned-down legal arguments to
advance their policies. But, in key areas--military action,
surveillance, and state secrets--they have simply found new ways to
assert power without meaningful constitutional or statutory
constraints. Edelson contends that this legacy of the two
immediately post-9/11 presidencies raises crucial questions for
future presidents, Congress, the courts, and American citizens.
Where is the political will to restore a balance of powers among
branches of government and adherence to the rule of law? What are
the limits of authority regarding presidential national security
power? Have national security concerns created a permanent shift to
unconstrained presidential power?
For the past fifty years, science and technology-supported with
billions of dollars from the U.S. government-have advanced at a
rate that would once have seemed miraculous, while society's
problems have grown more intractable, complex, and diverse. Yet
scientists and politicians alike continue to prescribe more science
and more technology to cure such afflictions as global climate
change, natural resource depletion, overpopulation, inadequate
health care, weapons proliferation, and economic inequality. Daniel
Sarewitz scrutinizes the fundamental myths that have guided the
formulation of science policy for half a century-myths that serve
the professional and political interests of the scientific
community, but often fail to advance the interests of society as a
whole. His analysis ultimately demonstrates that stronger linkages
between progress in science and progress in society will require
research agendas that emerge not from the intellectual momentum of
science, but from the needs and goals of society.
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