ABSTRACT
The United States continues to founder to reach a national security strategy and policy consensus in a rapidly changing environment, the nature and hostility of which are of uncertain and debatable seriousness. International events are seen as more or less traumatic depending on perceptions of the national security environment from which they have emerged. Periods of change are always unpredictable to some extent, partly because of uncertainties and imponderables about the new environment and the mood of the American public both about the experience they are leaving behind and the prospects for the future.
