Thread by @natsecHeather

2019 is a golden age for debate over American national security strategy. Over ar @lawfareblog, I review14 (!) recent pieces for trends in the debate over what to do post-Trump. How should Americans understand ourselves and our relationship to the world? lawfareblog.com/more-diplomacy…

Some trends: I can't think of a time in human history when as broadly representative (by no means perfect) swathe of society involved in strategy debate. Kudos in particular to @CNASdc and @ForeignAffairs, who included younger and older, D, R and Libertarian, M/F, blob/non-blob.

These writers uniformly point to the post Cold War 1990s as time US strategic ambitions and accomplishments got out of whack. Disagreements begin over whether it's possible/necessary to regain a humbler version of US leadership of that time. That split comes right through Dems.

You might be surprised at how broad agreement is -- including among restrainers/realists -- on maintaining some variant of US treaty-based alliances (NATO, Japan, S Korea). You might also be surprised at where support for traditional multilateralism pops up and where it doesn't.

Profound disagreement -- that doesn't map neatly onto ideological divides -- over whether we are in a "new Cold War" w/China, whether the fashionable "decoupling" is wise, even whether China can attain and sustain full peer competitor status.

Never-Trumpers and Dems alike are divided over whether redefining US foreign policy as a struggle for democracy and against authoritarianism is a good idea or a terrible one. But everyone, and I mean everyone, even the realists/restrainers, wants to rebuild the State Department.

Most of the writers have little or nothing to say about how economics connects to military and political strategy -- even on China. This is an enormous problem. And we see a big divide between Congressional figures starting from domestic policy, and everyone else ignoring it.

In a globalized and highly technical world, polarized and diffuse domestic environment, the fantasy of finding the next George Kennan or Henry Kissinger and imposing her brilliance on policymaking is just that—fantasy. Grand strategy is now a group sport. lawfareblog.com/more-diplomacy…

14+ authors/contributors reviewed:
@EmmaMAshford
@HalBrands
@CastilloJasen
@KateKizer
@dandrezner
@MiraRappHooper
@RebeccaLissner
@stephenWalt
@KoriSchake
@BenSasse
@GaneshSitaraman
@AlexWardVox
@ChrisMurphyCT
@RoKhanna
@JyShapiro
@shifrinson