With authoritarianism, fanaticism, aggression, and conflict growing alarmingly worldwide, it is clear that America’s post-Cold War foreign policy has been subpar. The response to emerging or reemerging threats to the free world’s security and way of life has been slow, inadequate, makeshift, and inconstant.

The United States and its allies have neglected proven principles and practices and let down their guard while enemies of freedom have seized the day. Complacent rather than vigilant, reactive rather than proactive, presidents and policymakers have, at critical junctures, such as the prologue to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, squandered America’s inherent moral-democratic leadership and military-strategic advantage.