American Grand Strategy: The End of Primacy?

Abstract

A review of current American strategic guidance and foreign policy choices reveals two conflicting grand strategies of retrenchment and primacy. Although President Obama s administration acknowledges a shift in the international order, U.S. strategic guidance clings to an outdated strategy of primacy while simultaneously pursuing retrenchment. There is no cohesive synchronization of the two strategies. Examined through the examples of Iraq and China, it is clear that when put into action, the grand strategy fails and actually undermines America s strategic efforts. The United States has a unique opportunity in the next two years to reevaluate our grand strategy and move toward a more appropriate strategy for a multipolar global environment.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 13, 2015
Accession Number
ADA618881

Entities

People

  • Carey J. Jones

Organizations

  • Air War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Climate Change
  • Congress
  • Department Of Defense
  • Droughts
  • Economic Systems
  • Environment
  • Foreign Policy
  • Governments
  • Intergovernmental Organizations
  • International Organizations
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • New York
  • Political Science
  • United States
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies