Strategic Rethink: Choices for America in a Turbulent World

In this July 24 Congressional Briefing, Ambassador James Dobbins discusses the report he coauthored with Howard Shatz and David Ochmanek, Choices for America in a Turbulent World. This is the first paper in the "Strategic Rethink" project, in which RAND researchers examine the most consequential choices that are likely to face this president and the next. The project focuses on the Middle East, Europe and Russia, international economics, national defense, climate change, and cybersecurity and offers elements of a national strategy which should inform policy choices.

The briefing focuses on

• why the current pace of geopolitical change is no faster or more significant than the profound upheavals the world experienced in the 20th century;
• the most significant foreign policy and national security challenges the United States will face in the coming years, specific and realistic options that policymakers might consider, and the strategic framework in which these choices should be evaluated;
• how the United States can continue to preserve the international order that has underwritten global peace and prosperity since the end of World War II.