| October 19, 2020 | View in Browser How should the United States think about the role of the military in national security?
It has become common for U.S. policymakers on both sides of the aisle to talk of withdrawal from costly conflicts abroad. But, as Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent write, President Donald Trump has not meaningfully reduced the U.S. military footprint—and he has suffered few political consequences as a result. Tanisha M. Fazal and Sarah Kreps point out that the absence of a popular backlash to American wars reduces the pressure on politicians to end them. A series of failed attempts at regime change should be enough to teach U.S. leaders the folly of intervention, Philip H. Gordon writes—whereas Richard Fontaine counters that the United States cannot discount military force as an instrument of foreign policy.
The problem is in the balance, former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates argues. Washington has relied too heavily on military power while allowing nonmilitary tools, such as diplomacy and foreign aid, to atrophy. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton writes that the United States must take a broader view of national security. A modern defense strategy should be designed not only for missiles and insurgencies, but for disease, climate change, and geopolitical competition. A National Security Reckoning How Washington Should Think About Power By Hillary Clinton The Overmilitarization of American Foreign Policy The United States Must Recover the Full Range of Its Power By Robert M. Gates The False Promise of Regime Change Why Washington Keeps Failing in the Middle East By Philip H. Gordon The United States’ Perpetual War in Afghanistan Why Long Wars No Longer Generate a Backlash at Home By Tanisha M. Fazal and Sarah Kreps Trump Didn’t Shrink U.S. Military Commitments Abroad—He Expanded Them The President’s False Promise of Retrenchment By Paul K. MacDonald and Joseph M. Parent The Nonintervention Delusion What War Is Good For By Richard Fontaine This special election coverage is made possible in part by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Subscribe Today and Save 55% New Subscribers Get a Free eBook JOIN FOREIGN AFFAIRS Copyright 2020 Council on Foreign Relations, Inc All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Subscribe If you wish to unsubscribe from this newsletter, please click here. | 