Strategic Studies Institute

Global Strategy Studies

Added April 01, 2005

Type: Monograph

American Grand Strategy After 9/11: An Assessment. Authored by Dr. Stephen D. Biddle.

Three years after 9-11, some of the most important choices for American grand strategy have yet to be made. Heretofore, the costs of pursuing ambitious but ill-defined goals have been high but tolerable; the Iraqi insurgency, however, is raising the costs to the point where choices must be made. The two natural alternatives, rollback and containment, each have strengths. But they also have real drawbacks--and the choice between them rests on some basic, and inherently subjective, value judgments.