ABSTRACT
The United States is entering one of its periodic national security transi-tions, a period when one set of environmental circumstances is changing and the country ponders how to respond to a changed future that is, by definition, uncertain. These events are more or less traumatic depending on the intensity of the national security environment from which they emerged and the apparent nature of the period into which the transition is aimed. Such periods 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.
