U.S. Role in a Changing World: Four Grand Strategies for the Next Decade

In America's Path: Grand Strategy for
the Next Administration, editors and CNAS experts Richard Fontaine
and Dr. Kristin M. Lord bring together four strategists - Dr. Robert J. Art,
Dr. Richard K. Betts, Dr. Peter Feaver and Dr. Anne-Marie Slaughter - with diverse
backgrounds and perspectives to advance a common mission of promoting informed
debate about America's role in the world and the best ways to fulfill it. Download America's
Path: Grand Strategy for the Next Administration.

Whatever the outcome of the November 2012 election, the United States will continue to face many global challenges. To lead America wisely in 2013 and beyond, the president and his administration will have to answer several questions: What kind of world does America face and how is the strategic landscape evolving? What are America's core national interests? How should America pursue its interests and what threatens them? What opportunities exist and how can America seize them? 

In his
essay, Art, Professor of International Relations at Brandeis University,
recognizes America's diminished super-power status but calls for an activist global
leadership role through the use of what he terms "selective
engagement."  Betts, Professor of War and Peace Studies at Columbia
University, favors greater restraint and some limited retrenchment in U.S.
foreign policy as a means to conserve the power and resources necessary to
maintain America's global leadership. Slaughter, Professor of Politics and
International Affairs at Princeton University, sees the rise of global networks
as the most significant international shift of the 21st century, and she urges
the United States to position itself close to the center of the political,
military, economic and other networks that most affect its interests. Feaver,
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Duke University, suggests
making adjustments to the current U.S. approach only at the margins, preferring
instead to preserve the international order that has guided the United States
through the post-Cold War era.



Fontaine, Lord and Feaver will also discuss this report at the CNAS annual
conference on Wednesday, June 13 during a session on National Security Strategy
for the Next Decade. Learn more about the conference and register here.
The conference will also be webcast live
starting at 8:45 a.m. EDT on June 13.



Stay up to date on all CNAS news and events by following @CNASdc on Twitter and visiting us on Facebook. America's Path will also be available
online here in e-reader and Kindle format on June 13.



For all press inquiries, contact Deputy Director of External Relations Sara
Conneighton at (202) 457-9429 or [email protected].

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The Center for a New American Security
(CNAS) is an independent and nonpartisan research
institution that develops strong, pragmatic and principled national security
and defense policies. CNAS leads efforts to help inform and prepare the
national security leaders of today and tomorrow.



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