STRATEGIC

6 Strategic Choices for a Turbulent World: In Pursuit of Security and Opportunity
national strategy must account for. It discusses the revival of familiar
challenges, such as assertive major-power competitors; hybrid challenges,
such as Salafi-jihadist terrorism or the “little green men” who
have done much of the fighting in Ukraine; and unfamiliar problems
for which we do not now have satisfactory solutions, such as abrupt
climate change or pandemics. It identifies three potentially existential
threats to the United States in the 21st century: nuclear weapons, bioterrorism,
and climate change.
Since successful strategy involves leveraging advantages as well as
minimizing vulnerabilities, Chapter Four turns to the chief sources of
U.S. strength and vulnerability. It discusses the domestic issues that are
particularly relevant to the country’s ability to sustain its international
engagement: jobs, innovation, and demographic challenges. Chapter
Five discusses three specific policymaking approaches that the United
States could cultivate to prepare for this uncertain world: anticipation,
deterrence, and resilience.
The second half of the report analyzes alternatives for the path
forward. It begins with an overview of the ongoing efforts, in academia
and the think tank world, to develop a “grand strategy” to give
greater coherence to U.S. defense, diplomacy, and economic engagement
abroad. It concludes that the United States needs a strategic concept—a
basic set of operating principles and assumptions—to guide
the innumerable tactical decisions of international engagement and to
develop public understanding, political backing, and allies’ support. It
then offers a definition of core U.S. interests that are—or should be—
common to any future administration, and objectives to be pursued.
It then suggests three possible strategic orientations, each reflected in
varying ways in the contemporary national dialogue:
• “Come Home America:” domestic renewal and international
restraint
• “The Indispensable Nation:” America as promoter of world order
• “Agile America:” adapt and compete in a changing world.
It is important to consider not only the foreign policy outcomes
that Americans desire but also imperfect ones they may well have to