Why America’s Grand Strategy Has Not Changed: Power, Habit, and the U.S. Foreign Policy Establishment

Summary

Since the end of World War II, the United States has pursued a grand strategy of primacy, despite periodic criticisms and major changes in the international system. Why? The U.S. foreign policy establishment perpetuates primacy as the only legitimate grand strategy, foreclosing alternate perspectives. President Donald Trump is challenging this consensus, but the establishment has resisted change—so far.