ABSTRACT
The United States has been on an intellectual roller coaster over matters of national security, and more specifically the role of force, for the last quarter century. When the Cold War ended, it left a conceptual void about how to think about and conduct national security policy. The 1990s provided a physical and intellectual respite of sorts from the militarily dominated competition, and new influences like economic globalization arose in a system where the United States was the sole remaining superpower. The global war on terrorism (GWOT) returned the centrality of military power as the lingua franca of international relations. The impact of the end of the Cold War and international terrorism creates the up-to-date context of the ongoing debate about future policy.
