Memo to US President

The purpose of this memorandum is to summarize what is meant by grand strategy, analyze the strategic choices open to the United States in the post-Cold War era and to recommend what types of strategies appear to offer the greatest potential for protecting vital American interests in the decade beginning in 1997. Specific examples of wise and unwise strategic choices will be taken from recent history and some of the more important challenges facing the nation in the area of national security are addressed.

Definition of Grand Strategy. Grand strategy deals with the fundamental choices any nation must make in furthering its vital interests and proceeds from an analysis and assessment of what those interests are, what is the probable nature of the threats to those interests and their policy implications, particularly for the use of physical or military force. Gaddis defines it as "the process by which ends are related to means, intentions to capabilities, objectives to responses" (vii).

The first step in the development of a grand strategy is the identification of the vital national interests involved and an evaluation of the threats to those interests. For example, the Nazi conquests in Western Europe in 1940-1941 and its U-Boat campaign in the Atlantic posed a real strategic threat to the United States. Art suggests that such a threat was more remote tha

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ed States' overwhelming commanding technological position" (319). Then the immediate threat of nuclear annihilation abruptly disappeared in 1989-1990. It does not follow from the absence of such a strategic threat on the near-term horizon that the United States should retreat into a policy of isolationism or a nuclear and sea based system of Western hemispheric defense. Your predecessor talked and acted in the early part of his administration as though domestic matters had much greater priority than did national security. The United States has serious internal problems which need to be addressed; however, in an interdependent global economy, the United States must be concerned with economic nationalism and other threats to the openness of the international economic system and the underlying political stability of important areas of the world. With the immediate strategic threat diminished, any president must recognize the limitations set on his actions abroad by domestic public opinion. As Craig/George point out, "the increased influence of public opinion . . . and domestic politics has made diplomacy a complex process" (176). Public opinion polls suggested that domestic support for a sustained commitment of major forces in
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Approximate Word count = 2795
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

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