Superpower: Three Choices for America's Role in the World

Bestselling author and strategist Ian Bremmer argues that Washington’s directionless foreign policy has become expensive and dangerous. Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has stumbled from crisis to crisis in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, and Ukraine with no clear strategy.

Bremmer urges us to think more deeply about what sort of role America should play and how it should use its superpower status. He explores three competing options:

• Independent America: America should no longer take responsibility for solving other people’s problems, and instead should lead by example.

• Moneyball America: Washington can’t meet every international challenge, but we can and should focus on opportunities and defend U.S. interests where they’re threatened.

• Indispensable America: Only America can defend the values on which global stability increasingly depends. We will never live in a stable world while others are denied their most basic freedoms.

There are sound arguments for and against each of these choices, but we must choose. Washington can no longer improvise a foreign policy without a lasting commitment to a coherent strategy.

IAN BREMMER is the president and founder of Eurasia Group, the leading global political risk research and consulting firm. He has published nine books, including the national bestsellers The End of the Free Market and Every Nation for Itself. He lectures widely and writes a weekly foreign affairs column for Time magazine, where he’s editor at large. He lives in New York City.