Los Angeles Times
July 29, 2004
Although the Cold War ended more than a decade ago, in August 1991, our
political system has not yet produced a new, grand strategy for the United
States to replace containment of communism.
Until Sept. 11, this
failure might have been attributable to the lack of a common enemy. Since then,
the strategic vacuum has been filled, but only partly, by the war on terrorism.
But I believe it is not enough for the world's greatest power —
greatness measured in every traditional dimension of economic, political and
military power — to limit its strategic focus to crushing only one method
(terrorism) employed by one radical fundamentalist network (Al Qaeda).
Shouldn't we have a greater and nobler purpose in the 21st century
world?
Our new century is dynamic in four revolutionary ways:
globalization, information, sovereignty and conflict. Globalization and
information technology are revolutionizing international markets and finance and
transforming whole economies and societies. The y in turn are eroding
traditional nation-state sovereignty and compromising the state's ability to
provide economic and physical security. Weakening of the state's monopoly on
violence has led to the transformation of war and fundamental alterations in the
nature of conflict.
Neither an ad hoc approach — "We'll deal with
these issues as they arise" — nor the Bush administration's "war on
terrorism" is an adequate framework for defining the role of the United States
in the years ahead. The European nation-state is giving way to the United
Europe, thus making restoration of the Atlantic Alliance problematic. The
Chinese and Indian economic explosions, national redefinition in Japan and a
nuclear North Korea all require fresh U.S. policies on Asia. Elsewhere, failed
states, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, epidemics, mass migrations
and global warming — the new agenda of the century — all require
closer international collaboration and probably new international instit utions.
A grand strategy is simply the application of a nation's powers to the
achievement of larger purposes. I would argue we have three such purposes: to
ensure security (both for ourselves and, where possible, for others), to expand
opportunity and to promote liberal democracy around the world. And to achieve
them, we can harness three powers — economic, political and military
— far superior to anyone else's. Our economy is larger than the next four
or five national economies combined. We have an unrivaled diplomatic and
political network. And soon we will spend more on our military than the rest of
the world combined.
But we also have a fourth power, shared by few if
any other great nations in history. That power is contained in our founding
principles, the constitutional statement of who we are, what we believe and how
we have chosen to govern ourselves. The idea that government exists to protect,
not oppress, the individual has an enormous power not fully understood by mos t
Americans, who take this principle for granted from birth. Far more nations
will follow us because of the power of this ideal than the might of all our
weapons.
But the power of principle is complex: It is our greatest
strategic asset and our greatest national constraint. Our principles are the
predominant reason we are admired in the world, but on those occasions when we
fail to live up to these principles, we are weakened accordingly.
In a
more perfect world, the 2004 presidential campaign would be an ideal occasion
for the candidates and their parties to present to the American people a new
grand strategy for this new century. If such a strategy is not put forward, the
current vacuum of purpose and belief will only continue to grow, inviting
further destructive political polarization and incivility.
Ominously,
this vacuum has already inspired proponents of America-as-empire to emerge,
almost unchallenged. Some have argued that we are, in fact, already either a
benign empire or a s tealthy empire that must conceal its methods and purposes.
Some so-called neoconservatives in the Bush administration have evoked Woodrow
Wilson for the purpose of making the United States the missionary of democracy,
neglecting the important truth that Wilson's methods were internationalist and
peaceful, not unilateralist and militaristic.
Throughout history,
empires have been characterized by domination, political control, centralized
administration and rule by force. If the United States is to become an empire,
a warning must be heard: Becoming an empire, we will no longer be a republic.
Throughout history, and today, the two are incompatible. Not by accident has
the rise of the theory of empire coincided with the temptation to set aside our
principles.
To preserve our republic, we must advance a new,
alternative grand strategy that addresses this revolutionary century, one
compatible with our powers and with the great principles upon which our nation
was founded.