ABSTRACT
The United States is at or nearing a crossroads in its national security orientation toward the world, and while it is certainly possible to over-inflate its impact or ultimate effects, there is a marked change in this regard. Since 1945, the United States has been the leading power in the world, the country whose policies and outlooks have mattered everywhere, and much of this predominance has had a national security base, premised on and often enforced by the military strength of the United States, which is and has been the major measure of national security. During this period, the United States has adopted a generally expansive, sometimes aggressive global role based on an abundance of resources that could be devoted to national security chores. Often, the result has been outcomes that have favored American interests in the world, but occasionally they have not. American diligence held the line in Korea (the division of the Korean peninsula into two countries that the North Koreans sought to erase) and prevailed in the Cold War competition with the Soviet Union and its allies. The outcomes in places like Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan have not been unambiguously positive.
