MEMORANDUM TO: President of the United States
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 than real and relies on the writings of Nicholas Spykman to support his point (16-18). This is basically revisionist nonsense. However, whether or not Art's analysis is correct, the Anglo-American leaders concluded that they had to give priority to the defeat of Germany.
During the Cold War, the United States and its allies were faced with a single major enemy, the Soviet Union, an implacable foe which developed considerable nuclear and conventional military power and other strengths, including a unified and dictatorial regime...