This is America (not the next doomed empire)

After reading Layne's essay about US grand strategy, I can say he does come across a little paranoid about the future of America.

It is Layne's belief that the United States can not long sustain being the world's superpower. Citing examples from Louis XIV to Nazi Germany, he brings up the point that "When a state wins too much, it loses". He goes on to explain that states with great power will only increase the motivation of other states to succed. It is a view that everyone wants to survive and be in power. Thus, when one country picks up the pace, others will follow in their footsteps in an effort to maintain balance.

I do not know that I agree with this view. I think Layne is just being paranoid about the potential threats facing the United States. His idea of "securing" our country is to cut off aid to other countries, eliminate economic interdependence and use our strategic geographic location to "isolate" ourselves from the rest of the world. In a sense, it a very realist view of how to best run the international community. Rather than use our resources to help other countries in economic, military and humanitarian crises we should just take care of ourselves first. While I agree that we have a number of domestic issues that need to be adressed and shouldn't act as the "world police" I do think we owe it to help maintain a favorable international climate. We shouldn't just hole up in our nice cozy North American den and delegate the rest of our tasks. Sure, playing defense is probably a good way to make sure your state survives, but I don't think it fosters a good world to be in. Maybe I am just too liberal to see things Layne's way. I just can't help sitting around while other's suffer.

As Layne mentions, the international economy favors peace. Obviously then we should do all we can to maintain it. The presented theory of extended deterrence would work, assuming the country of reference is already well respected. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the US. If we can regain our international morality (come on, 2008!) we can employ these tactics. To a liberal such as myself the idea of occupying a country or invading just to show your muscle does not seem like a good idea on the surface. However, Layne does bring up a good point when he says that by showing you're serious about your military you can quench many potential attackers.

In regards to offshore balancing, I am a bit torn. On the one hand, I think the world is moving away from one superpower to several nations (China, Germany) dictating the norms. With that said, I don't think that should prevent America from maintaining its status. We just need to learn how to cooperate with other nations and not allow another WWII/Cold War situation to arise.

Ok, so maybe that was kind of a lot of rambling. I guess the point is that I don't see America's immediate future to be in jeopardy. I think we need to work on our respect in the world but we need to aknowledge that other nations are going to rise to our status. Sure, IR is an ever-changing world but I don't think we need a drastic overhaul of our policies.