Grand Strategy

No new, compelling vision of America’s role in the world has emerged to replace the obsolete bipartisan Cold War consensus. Neither the Clinton administration’s market-driven approach to foreign policy nor the militant unilateralism of George W. Bush’s administration is an appropriate or sustainable strategy for the United States.

The most promising alternative would combine tough-minded realism with pragmatic idealism in a new grand strategy joining U.S. support for great-power military and diplomatic cooperation in managing regional crises with an American commitment to promoting social and economic development throughout the global South on a significant scale. In the long run, the best way to ensure American safety in a dangerous world is to make the world less dangerous.

For more on New America's work in this area, please see our main American Strategy Program page, available via the links at right.