Vice President Joe Biden spoke at George Washington University's Center for American Progress on July 18, 2013, to discuss the Obama administration's continued "elevated engagement in the Asia-Pacific," which is also often referred to as the U.S. pivot, or rebalance, to Asia.
Asked by Zahra Fatima, from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad
"Grand strategy" is defined as a coherent plan to use diplomatic, military, and economic instruments in certain ways to achieve national, overarching objectives. Grand strategies are usually identified by simple labels such as "containment," "détente," or "engagement and enlargement." In reality, international politics is complicated, and a democratic political system at home imposes constraints from public opinion, mobilized interest groups, and Congress.
Secretary of State John Kerry is launching new Mideast shuttle diplomacy, but President Obama's commitment to brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement remains to be seen, says expert Martin Indyk.
National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon gave these remarks at Asia Society in New York on March 11, 2013. He discussed why the Obama administration "rebalanced" to Asia, how the United States will contribute to the region's security, and regional and economic architecture.
Presider: Stewart M. Patrick Panelists: Daniel Deudney, G. John Ikenberry, and David Brooks
The discussion outlines a new U.S. grand strategy focused on reinvigorating solidarity between the United States and established democracies in defense of a world based on liberal principles and the rule of law, with Johns Hopkins University Professor Daniel Deudney, Princeton University Professor G. John Ikenberry, The New York Times columnist David Brooks, and CFR's Stewart M. Patrick.
Speakers: Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry Presider: Stewart M. Patrick
The discussion outlines a new U.S. grand strategy focused on reinvigorating solidarity between the United States and established democracies in defense of a world based on liberal principles and the rule of law.
If there's one indisputable fact about this most polarizing of figures, it's that he is hard to get rid of -- and every retreat, even his most recent withdrawal from political life, lays the groundwork for an eventual counterattack.
Speakers: Daniel Deudney, G. John Ikenberry, and David Brooks Presider: Stewart M. Patrick
The discussion outlines a new U.S. grand strategy focused on reinvigorating solidarity between the United States and established democracies in defense of a world based on liberal principles and the rule of law.
Distinguished professors Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry argue that the United States should initiate a new phase of democratic internationalism based on the "pull of success rather than the push of power."
The post-war U.S. approach to strategy is rapidly becoming insolvent and unsustainable. If Washington continues to cling to its existing role on the premise that the international order depends upon it, the result will be increasing resistance, economic ruin, and strategic failure with consequences harming U.S. credibility, diplomacy, and military operations.
Walter Russell Mead explains that American "decline" is a misnomer; international relations are still rebalancing following the end of the Cold War as regional powers take on international importance.
"Between 1500 and 1800, the West sprinted ahead of other centers of power in Asia and the Middle East. Europe and the United States have dominated the world since," writes Charles A. Kupchan in a new CFR book, No One's World: The West, The Rising Rest, and the Coming Global Turn. But this era is coming to a close, he argues, as power shifts from the West to the rising rest.
Authors: Nikolas Gvosdev and Ray Takeyh The National Interest
Nikolas Gvosdev and Ray Takeyh argue that the justifying of America's Libya campaign solely on humanitarian grounds marked a fundamental break with past U.S. policy prescriptions for such military interventions.
Richard N. Haass argues that the United States should adopt a doctrine of Restoration as its guiding foreign policy framework, focusing on "restoring this country's strength and replenishing its economic, human, and physical resources."
Charles Kupchan states, "Tectonic shifts in international affairs and in political and economic conditions within the United States call for reconsideration of the first principles of American grand strategy—the fundamental tenets guiding the nation's statecraft."
The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.
Special operations play a critical role in how the United States confronts irregular threats, but to have long-term strategic impact, the author argues, numerous shortfalls must be addressed.
The author analyzes the potentially serious consequences, both at home and abroad, of a lightly overseen drone program and makes recommendations for improving its governance.
An authoritative and accessible look at what countries must do to build durable and prosperous democracies—and what the United States and others can do to help. More
Through an in-depth analysis of modern Mexico, Shannon O'Neil provides a roadmap for the United States' greatest overlooked foreign policy challenge of our time—relations with its southern neighbor. More