STRATEGIC

2 Strategic Choices for a Turbulent World: In Pursuit of Security and Opportunity
spread disenchantment with the country’s economic performance,
and a deeply polarizing presidential election, Americans remain as
divided as ever about the role they envision for their country in this
unsettled world.
The public mood shifted from a sense of triumphalism following
the collapse of the Soviet Union to frustration with the costs and results
of large-scale U.S. nation-building efforts, skepticism about involvement
in local conflicts and crises of seemingly uncertain relevance to
U.S. interests (in Somalia, the Balkans, Rwanda, Haiti, Afghanistan,
Iraq, and now Syria), and domestic political stalemate. The spreading
threat from Islamist jihadism and the large number of terrorist attacks
by ISIS and its sympathizers around the world have renewed questions
about why violent Salafi-jihadism still has not been contained, much
less defeated.
More broadly, Americans are debating the ability of any non-
Muslim power to counter the ideologies of radical Islam, the Shiite-
Sunni rift, and other forms of sectarian violence that are ravaging the
Islamic world. Can the West intervene militarily without strengthening
the ranks of violent extremists who seek to provoke an apocalyptic
conflict between the Islamic and Christian worlds? Can the United
States conduct the intelligence and security activities necessary to prevent
terrorist attacks without undermining civil liberties at home?
Some question why the United States must so frequently resort
to the use of force, 3 or bear the costs of stabilizing failing or oppressive
governments, some of which are U.S. partners in countering terrorism.
4 Others fear that a more assertive China and a revanchist
Russia are leading the world back to confrontations that were supposed
to have ended with the Cold War. Many see no choice but a
firm U.S. response. There is broad agreement that allies in Europe
and Asia should improve their military capabilities, yet resentment
of Iraq and the Sham (both abbreviated as ISIS), or simply as the Islamic State (IS). Arguments
abound as to which is the most accurate translation, but here we refer to the group as ISIS.
3 See Stephen M. Walt, “Is America Addicted to War?” Foreign Policy, April 4, 2011.
4 See Matt Schiavenza, “Why the U.S. Is Stuck with Saudi Arabia: Even the Shale Oil Revolution
Can’t Wean Washington off its Despotic Middle Eastern Ally,” The Atlantic, January 2015.