ABSTRACT
The American impact on the global and regional systems of security governance would be difficult to overstate. The US remains singular in its possession of a military capable of global power projection and simultaneous multi-theatre combat operations. Its economic capacity and financial resources are similarly unparalleled. Yet the Bush Administration’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in combination with the global, economic and financial crises of 2008-9, have progressively reduced American power and influence in the international system, making America more, rather than less, dependent upon cooperation with its allies and competitors to meet the threats and challenges to American security.
