The United States is strategically lost twixt the gilded memory of a global Pax Americana benevolently presided over by the world’s erstwhile sole superpower, and the uncertainties of an emerging multipolar, neo-mercantilist world that is a work in progress and whose end state is unknown. In this transition period while America tries to find its bearings, Washington’s disoriented decision-makers are squandering U.S. power without purpose to safeguard nebulous vital national interests that cannot be clearly articulated against imaginary threats that are inflated by incendiary rhetoric. 

It’s time to press the reset button and rediscover and reimagine America’s vital national interests to serve as a compass to exit the strategic cul-de-sac of the present and navigate the challenges of the future.