Strategic Challenges: America's Global Security Agenda

by Stephen J. Flanagan, James A. Schear

Overview

Since 2001, the United States has endured a tumultuous period, one dominated by the 9/11 attacks and all that has followed: the war on terrorism, the Afghan and Iraqi campaigns, looming confrontations with known or suspected proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, and episodic explosions of mass violence in chronically unstable regions. In this second half of the decade, these and related strategic challenges will test the skill, tenacity, and imagination of the current and the next U.S. administration and the American public. How well these challenges are managed then, or mastered, will greatly influence whether future historians look back upon this decade as a dangerous passage toward a more peaceful, globally connected order or as a descending path into an ever more fragmented, violent world. This volume explores seven looming, as yet unmastered strategic challenges facing the United States. Each chapter tackles one of the following challenges: tackling global terrorism, stopping WMD proliferation, undertaking defense transformation, protecting the homeland, strengthening relations with allies and partners, engaging other major powers, and defusing conflicts in unstable regions. Each chapter takes a similar approach: defining the problem at hand (i.e., a short discussion of relevant trends); explicating current U.S. efforts to master the challenge (i.e., U.S. objectives, methods, degree of success or setbacks); and analyzing looming choices that U.S. policymakers will face in the next decade and, as appropriate, the consequences of alternative courses of action. Strategic Challenges capitalizes on the great regional and topical expertise of the INSS professional research staff to present an authoritative overview of the global strategic environment facing the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781597971218
Publisher:	Potomac Books
Publication date:	02/01/2008
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Stephen J. Flanagan is senior vice president and director of the International Security Program at CSIS. Dr. Flanagan has published numerous books, most recently The People's Liberation Army and China in Transition. He lives in Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations     ix
Foreword   Lieutenant General Frances C. Wilson, USMC     xi
Acknowledgments     xiii
The Emerging Global Security Environment   Charles D. Lutes   M. Elaine Bunn   Stephen J. Flanagan     1
Countering Global Terrorism   Joseph McMillan   Christopher Cavoli     20
Combating WMD Threats   Charles D. Lutes     61
Protecting the American Homeland   Thomas X. Hammes   James A. Schear   John A. Cope     86
Defusing Conflicts in Unstable Regions   James A. Schear     110
Engaging Other Major Powers   Joseph McMillan   Eugene B. Rumer   Phillip C. Saunders     149
Adapting Alliances and Partnerships   Stephen J. Flanagan   Leo G. Michel   James J. Przystup   John A. Cope     203
Transforming Defense Strategy and Posture   Christopher J. Lamb   Charles D. Lutes   M. Elaine Bunn   Christopher Cavoli     275
Securing America's Future: Progress and Perils   Stephen J. Flanagan     314
Notes     347
About the Contributors     399
Index     403

Editorial Reviews

“The editors, both distinguished scholars, have put together an extensive and fairly complex analysis of U.S. strategy and proposes ways ahead. While there are no final answers, students of our executive and legislative branches should consider this book’s arguments.”—Proceedings

Proceedings

"Stephen Flanagan and James Schear have put together a very important work that outlines the extensive and dangerous security challenges that the 21st century has presented and will present to the United States. This book is a must read for policymakers at every level."—General John P. Abizaid, USA (Ret.), Former Commander, U.S. Central Command, Annenberg Distinguished Visiting Fellow, The Hoover Institution, Stanford University

General John P. Abizaid

"Strategic Challenges is a timely edition that invites further discussions on the policy and strategic options that our next administration should consider. They ignore it at our peril."—Richard L. Armitage, Former Deputy Secretary of State, President, Armitage International

Richard L. Armitage

"A serious strategic analysis of America’s genuine security interests that stands in sharp contrast to the demagogic neocon advocacy of a 'World War III' against jihadist Islam."—Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former National Security Advisor, Counselor and Trustee, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Zbigniew Brzezinski

"The United States will remain preeminent for the next two decades, but it will face a wide range of security challenges to which Stephen Flanagan, James Schear, and their National Defense University colleagues bring wise analysis."—Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor, Harvard University

Joseph S. Nye

The editors, both distinguished scholars, have put together an extensive and fairly complex analysis of U.S. strategy and proposes ways ahead. While there are no final answers, students of our executive and legislative branches should consider this book’s arguments.”

"A serious strategic analysis of America’s genuine security interests that stands in sharp contrast to the demagogic neocon advocacy of a 'World War III' against jihadist Islam."

"The United States will remain preeminent for the next two decades, but it will face a wide range of security challenges to which Stephen Flanagan, James Schear, and their National Defense University colleagues bring wise analysis."

"Strategic Challenges is a timely edition that invites further discussions on the policy and strategic options that our next administration should consider. They ignore it at our peril."

"Stephen Flanagan and James Schear have put together a very important work that outlines the extensive and dangerous security challenges that the 21st century has presented and will present to the United States. This book is a must read for policymakers at every level."

From the Publisher