Wrap-Up: Grand Strategy Alternatives
Session 7
May 21-22, 2003
Meeting Notes (pdf 68 KB)—Summarized by Michael Kraig, Ph.D.
Lawrence Korb, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense
Which grand strategy is best suited to tackle the myriad threats facing the United States in today's world hegemony based upon preventive military actions and economic and military supremacy, traditional realism, or cooperative security and liberal institutionalism? Which strategy best blends economic, diplomatic, and military instruments while simultaneously addressing state-level and nonstate threats?
In particular, what is the role of prevention? What does prevention mean? What are the trade-offs between addressing existing threats and preventing new ones from emerging? Should the government construct a coherent way of comparing and contrasting the costs of each? How should the US government calculate the "opportunity costs" of spending on counterforce weaponry and military methods versus money spent on aid programs, democratization, and other "soft" security items to prevent a threat from emerging in the first place? How are these related, if at all?