Entry

Present at the creation

Acheson records the institutional work behind an order built through capacity, finance, and alliances.

Author: Dean Acheson
Year: 1969
Track: state capacity
Citation: Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation, 1969.

Dean Acheson, U.S. Secretary of State, official portrait, c. 1949 — U.S. Department of State, 1949, public domain

Acheson records the institutional work behind an order built through capacity, finance, and alliances. Its place in the canon is not decorative. It marks a recurring problem for American economic statecraft: how law, capital, operators, and legitimacy combine when a nation tries to build strategic economic terrain.