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Grand Strategy Revisited
THE SOURCE: “Imperial by Design” by John J. Mearsheimer, in The National Interest, Jan.–Feb. 2011.
Since the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy has not produced inspiring results: The United States has been at war roughly two of every three years. The military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan have been long and costly. Three major foreign-policy problems have persisted without signs of resolution: preventing Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, getting Pyongyang to give them up, and settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “The United States is in a world of trouble today . . . and this state of affairs is only likely to get worse,” laments University of Chicago political scientist John J. Mearsheimer, a noted “realist” thinker.
The mistake the United States made was not in the execution of its foreign policy but in the choice of its grand strategy. In the decades since the Cold War, the United States has pursued “global dominance,” working to maintain its primacy and spread democracy, trying to make the world over in its own image.
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Tweeting Toward Freedom?
A Survey of Recent Articles: "After Revolt, Egyptians Try to Shape New Politics" by Neil MacFarquhar, from The New York Times (March 18, 2011); "Small Change" by Malcolm Gladwell, in The New Yorker (Oct. 4, 2010); "The Political Power of Social Media" by Clay Shirky, in Foreign Affairs (Jan.–Feb. 2011); "How Much Did Social Media contribute to Revolution in the Middle East?" by Evgeny Morozov, in Bookforum (April–May 2011); and "Freedom.gov" by Evgeny Morozov, in Foreign Policy (Jan.–Feb. 2011).Learning From Al Qaeda
THE SOURCE: “Becoming the Enemy” by Stanley A. McChrystal, in Foreign Policy, March–April 2011.China’s Inner Struggle
THE SOURCE: “Coping with a Conflicted China” by David Shambaugh, in The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2011.