Sublime

Thus it is not clear whether the absence of wars involving the great powers is an enduring trend or something of an aberration. Some judge this trend as likely to last, arguing wars between countries have become less common because actual or potential costs have gone up, especially in those instances in which nuclear weapons could be introduced. Ot

One critical factor in determining the region’s future will be the role that the United States chooses to play going forward. As already noted, one reason for the region’s phenomenal success over the past seventy years is the presence of the United States. Yes, the United States badly overreached by trying to unite all of the Korean Peninsula by fo

From 2013, American policymakers argued that armed UAVs (“drones”), along with Special Operations, could destroy al-Qaeda’s leadership and effectively end the war on terrorism.57

It should be added that sovereignty can also be voluntarily constrained or even ceded or delegated. This, for example, is what countries do inside the European Union, where they pool their sovereignty, allowing the EU’s various organs to make decisions that affect them. Other countries do something similar in the World Trade Organization.

There is considerable evidence that mature democracies, that is, those countries with strong constitutions, meaningful checks and balances on the exercise of power, and extensive individual rights, tend not to attack other democracies. This is often referred to as the “democratic peace” theory. History suggests this is true, but immature or illiber

NEXT STEPS FOR TRANSFORMING SOF In this chapter, we have argued that emerging information age technologies reinforce rather than challenge the conclusion that independent SOF operations, and particularly indirect missions, provide greater strategic value for the United States than support to conventional forces, and especially SOF direct action sup

First, our NSC process would deliver options to advance and protect the interests of the American people and overcome national security challenges.