Author: Ganesh Sitaraman
Affiliation: Vanderbilt University School of Law
Organization/Publisher: Foreign Affairs
Date/Place: September-October 2020/USA
Type of Literature: Report
Word Count: 3525
Link: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-08-11/grand-strategy-resilience
Keywords: Grand Strategy, Resilience, Reforms, Economic Inequality
Brief:
Change is happening in the US. The neoliberal order is coming to an end with an uncertain future ahead that includes climate and health crises, cyber attacks, and a global geo-economic competition. The recent pandemic has shown that the US is underprepared for a large-scale disaster, showing that the US is not resilient enough. The failure to prepare well leads to domestic disasters. There is a need for a new grand strategy unlike the previous ones, one of systemic planned resilience to absorb disaster shocks. The US needs profound domestic reforms; with no home basis, global goals couldn’t be met. It is crucial to mitigate high economic inequality, fixing racial disparities and the preference of capital over people. Attending to the needs of Americans, especially the health care, and restoring a just system of wealth distribution is essential to raising faith in democracy, which is at an all-time low. Restoring the culture of expanding infrastructure and strong unions will mitigate inequalities. In addition, maintaining a suitable ring of alliances maintains an active economy and protects democracy at home. The US will have to abandon aggressive wars abroad to achieve these alliances; democracy will never spread via invasions. Having a more active role in aiding allies is more paramount than finding monsters to kill, which wastes resources and weakens American resilience. The US needs to reform itself to weather coming storms and to maintain its democracy, and a grand strategy of resilience is needed.
By: Omar Fili, CIGA Research Assistant
