Why American Strategy Fails: Ending the Chronic Imbalance Between Ends and Means

Posted October 28, 2020

External Article: Foreign Affairs

Admiral Sandy Winnefeld (ret.), USN, a Sam Nunn School distinguished professor of the practice, and Allison Graham, a Nunn School advisory board member, have co-authored “Why American Strategy Fails.” The article published in Foreign Affairs was written with Michael J Morrell, former acting director and deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency, discusses how the next U.S. administration is going to face the most difficult foreign policy test. 

Excerpt:

In January, either a second Trump administration or a Biden administration will face the most difficult foreign policy test the United States has experienced since the early years of the Cold War. This test stems not just from specific challenges but also from a growing imbalance among four classic variables of grand strategy: ends, ways, means, and the security landscape. Left unrecognized and unaddressed, gaps between U.S. ambitions and the U.S. ability to fulfill them will generate increasingly unacceptable strategic risks.

Read the article on Foreign Affairs (by subscription).