Kevin Blachford
As the United States prepares for the November presidential election, political commentators and security analysts are no doubt also preparing for what now seems like the obligatory ritual of providing grandiose plans, roadmaps, blueprints, navigational guides, frameworks, strategy outlines, policy wishlists, and designs for the future of American foreign policy. Of course, this almost ritualized behavior is part of the process by which every new U.S. administration begins its four years in office: by facing numerous calls for the U.S. to adopt a new “grand strategy.” Having a grand strategy is seen as the key to defining the future of American ambitions and the means to securing its national interests. Even before the actual presidential election, there have been several calls for such grand strategies.
Yet the proposed grand strategy revisions are also “wishful” strategies that overplay the unitary nature of the state and largely fail to account for the conflicting interests within U.S. politics. The making of American foreign policy is not led by a clear-sighted president and his strategizing national security advisor, but by a competitive policy marketplace. This ever-expanding marketplace includes the bureaucracy of planning staffs, research institutions, and lobbyists who seek not to secure the national interest, but the prestige and funding to expand organizational growth.
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