American Military Power and World Peace: A Strategic Paradox

Tewfik Hamel

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Aug 28 2025

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Since the extremity of the Cold War, the United States has maintained an unparalleled planetary subject posture, embodying what immoderate analysts person called an empire of bases (Johnson, The Sorrows of Empire, 2004). With astir 750 subject facilities crossed much than 80 countries (IISS, 2024), the U.S. continues to task powerfulness connected a standard unmatched successful history. This presence, supported by a defence fund exceeding $860 cardinal successful 2023 much than the adjacent 10 countries combined demonstrates that subject powerfulness remains the cornerstone of American planetary influence. Yet, this dominance is progressively contested. The extremity of the unipolar infinitesimal (Krauthammer, 1990; Mearsheimer, 2018) has seen the emergence of adjacent competitors specified arsenic China and Russia, arsenic good arsenic the proliferation of asymmetric threats. Moreover, the American militarys centrality successful shaping planetary bid raises a paradox: portion intended to guarantee bid and stability, the precise omnipresence of U.S. forces often generates insecurity, dependence, and strategical backlash.

This nonfiction examines the militarization of U.S. overseas policy, analyzing however the United States uses its equipped forces arsenic a instrumentality of planetary governance, and the implications of this reliance connected subject powerfulness for planetary peace. It explores 5 interrelated dimensions: (1) The ideological and strategical roots of American militarism; (2) The planetary web of bases and the geography of U.S. power; (3) The centrality of subject instruments successful American overseas policy; (4) The tensions betwixt U.S. militarization and satellite order; (5) The caller frontiers of militarizationcyber, space, and multi-domain operations. In doing so, the nonfiction highlights the contradiction astatine the bosom of modern American strategy: the content that planetary bid tin beryllium achieved done subject supremacy, adjacent though specified supremacy progressively fosters instability.

1)The Strategic and Ideological Roots of American Militarism

To afloat grasp the structural quality of American militarism, it is indispensable to hint its ideological and strategical foundations crossed antithetic humanities and governmental contexts. This trajectory begins with the taste and doctrinal roots that made subject powerfulness a cardinal pillar of U.S. identity, earlier moving done the illusion of unipolar dominance successful the postCold War era, the quagmire of the everlastingly wars, and yet the persistence of militarism successful the modern strategical posture nether the Biden administration. Each of these dimensions illustrates not lone the continuity of subject primacy successful U.S. overseas policy, but besides the recurring paradoxes and contradictions that person shaped its planetary projection of power.

American militarism is not simply the effect of post-9/11 counterterrorism oregon large powerfulness rivalry. It is profoundly embedded successful the countrys past and strategical culture. From the doctrine of Manifest Destiny successful the 19th period to the Cold War containment strategy, the United States has consistently relied connected subject unit arsenic a cardinal instrumentality of its rise. As Bacevich (2005) argues, the U.S. has developed a signifier of subject absolutism, wherever unit is not simply an enactment but often the preferred instrumentality of policy. The inclination to edifice to arms has been reinforced by the taste glorification of the subject successful American governmental discourse, the power of the military-industrial analyzable (Eisenhower, 1961), and the bipartisan statement that U.S. enactment requires subject dominance.

The illness of the Soviet Union fostered the content that American powerfulness could beryllium perpetuated indefinitely done its subject advantage. Charles Krauthammers conception of the unipolar infinitesimal (1990) reflected a condemnation that the U.S. had achieved a hegemonic presumption that would stay unchallenged. This assurance translated into an interventionist strategy: subject actions successful the Balkans (Bosnia, Kosovo), the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan), and North Africa (Libya) reinforced the cognition that the U.S. was the indispensable federation (Albright, 1998). However, these interventions often produced destabilization alternatively than peace, fueling criticisms of an over-militarized overseas argumentation (Miller, 2019).

The wars successful Afghanistan and Iraq epitomized this paradox. Despite overwhelming subject superiority, the U.S. was incapable to execute decisive governmental outcomes. The Afghan conflict, the longest successful American history, ended successful 2021 with a chaotic withdrawal that symbolized the limits of militarism. Similarly, the 2003 penetration of Iraq, justified successful the sanction of disarmament and democratization, generated chaos, sectarian conflict, and the emergence of ISIS (Byman, 2011). These everlastingly wars revealed the structural limits of subject power: it tin topple regimes but not easy rebuild states oregon reconcile societies. As Stephen Walt (2018) has underlined, American strategy has often confused the capableness to destruct with the capableness to make order.

Even aft the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, militarism remains a defining diagnostic of U.S. policy. President Bidens 2022 National Security Strategy emphasizes the request to out-compete China and incorporate Russia, with the Pentagon astatine the halfway of this competition. While diplomacy is rhetorically highlighted, the world is that U.S. strategy continues to prioritize guardant deployment, modernization of atomic forces, and the enlargement of alliances (NATO, AUKUS, Quad). Thus, acold from marking a rupture, the Biden medication illustrates the continuity of militarism arsenic a structural constituent of American power. As Posen (2014) argues, Washington remains trapped successful a expansive strategy of wide hegemony, successful which subject unit is viewed arsenic the eventual guarantor of order, contempt its destabilizing consequences.

The humanities trajectory of American militarism reveals a signifier of continuity that transcends administrations and geopolitical shifts. From the ideological underpinnings of Manifest Destiny to the everlastingly wars of the 21st century, the reliance connected subject unit has remained a structural diagnostic of U.S. power. Yet, if Part I has shown the roots and persistence of this militarized tradition, the modern epoch adds caller layers of complexity. The planetary web of U.S. bases, the entrenchment of the military-industrial complex, and the framing of large powerfulness rivalry with China and Russia person institutionalized militarism successful unprecedented ways. It is to these dynamics of planetary militarization and the expanding scope of U.S. subject beingness that the adjacent conception present turns.

2)The Global Network of U.S. Bases and the Geography of Power

If American militarism is rooted successful past and ideology, its astir tangible manifestation lies successful the planetary geography of U.S. power. Unlike accepted empires, Washingtons scope does not trust connected territorial conquest but connected an unparalleled web of overseas subject bases. This empire of bases provides the United States with the quality to task force, prolong operations, and power governmental outcomes crossed each portion of the globe. To recognize the centrality of this system, it is indispensable to analyse its scope, strategical logic, dual functions of reassurance and coercion, the controversies it generates, and its imaginable reconfiguration successful an epoch of shifting warfare and geopolitics.

One of the astir distinctive features of American subject powerfulness is its planetary web of installations. Chalmers Johnson (2004) famously described it arsenic an empire of basesa unsocial infrastructure that allows the United States to task powerfulness instantaneously crossed the globe. Unlike erstwhile empires, whose power relied connected colonies oregon territorial possessions, the U.S. exercises power done a dense web of subject facilities embedded successful allied oregon babelike states. The U.S. maintains astir 750 subject bases successful implicit 80 countries, ranging from tiny logistics hubs to monolithic installations similar Ramstein successful Germany, Camp Humphreys successful South Korea, and Al Udeid successful Qatar (IISS, 2024). These bases big tens of thousands of personnel, stockpiles of equipment, and precocious command-and-control infrastructure. They represent what David Vine (2015) calls the backbone of planetary hegemony.

The geography of U.S. bases reflects strategical priorities. In Europe, the web initially designed to deter the Soviet Union present serves to incorporate Russia, reenforce NATOs eastbound flank, and prolong accelerated deployments. The enlargement of U.S. forces successful Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states aft the warfare successful Ukraine illustrates this shift. In Asia, bases successful Japan, South Korea, Guam, and progressively successful the Philippines underpin the argumentation of integrated deterrence aimed astatine counterbalancing China. Washingtons accent connected the Indo-Pacific, codified successful the 2022 National Defense Strategy, illustrates a semipermanent pivot of subject attraction eastward. In the Middle East, installations successful Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar supply logistical enactment for operations and warrant power of strategical chokepoints specified arsenic the Strait of Hormuz. Although the U.S. has reduced its imperishable beingness successful Iraq and Afghanistan, the portion remains cardinal to vigor information and counterterrorism missions.

Finally, successful Africa, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) relies connected a lighter footprint, with drone bases successful Djibouti (Camp Lemonnier) and Niger (Agadez), reflecting a strategy of flexible beingness adapted to counterterrorism and monitoring great-power contention connected the continent (Watts, 2021). These installations fulfill a dual function: they reassure allies portion signaling coercive capableness to adversaries. For allies specified arsenic South Korea, Germany, oregon Poland, the imperishable beingness of U.S. forces represents a tangible information guarantee, reinforcing the credibility of defence commitments. At the aforesaid time, for rivals similar China, Russia, oregon Iran, these bases are disposable reminders of American powerfulness projection, often interpreted arsenic encirclement oregon strategical pressure. This duality creates a paradox. Bases intended to stabilize alliances tin simultaneously destabilize determination relations by heightening the information dilemma. For instance, the reinforcement of NATO forces successful Eastern Europe, meant to deter Russia, is perceived successful Moscow arsenic grounds of Western aggressionthus fueling the precise confrontation it seeks to incorporate (Mearsheimer, 2022).

The empire of bases besides entails tremendous fiscal and governmental costs. According to the Congressional Research Service (2023), maintaining overseas facilities costs tens of billions of dollars annually, representing a important information of Pentagon expenditures. Domestically, critics reason that this spending diverts resources from societal priorities, portion internationally, U.S. bases person sparked controversies implicit sovereignty, biology damage, and societal tensions with big populations. Movements opposing U.S. bases person emerged successful Okinawa (Japan), South Korea, and Italy, wherever section communities denounce noise, accidents, crimes, and the cognition of being occupied. These protests item the fragility of host-nation consent, which is indispensable for sustaining the basing network.

The improvement of warfare and geopolitics whitethorn pb to a reconfiguration of this network. The emergence of long-range precision weapons, cyberattacks, and anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities makes ample imperishable bases vulnerable. In response, the Pentagon is experimenting with lily pad basessmaller, much flexible, and dispersed installations designed for accelerated deployment (Cancian, CSIS, 2022). At the aforesaid time, great-power contention suggests that the U.S. volition not trim but alternatively accommodate its planetary presence. The Indo-Pacific, Eastern Europe, and the Arctic are apt to go the precedence theaters of this evolving geography of subject power. Taken together, the planetary basing strategy illustrates however U.S. militarism is not simply an ideological prime but an infrastructural world that shapes satellite authorities connected a regular basis. However, bases unsocial bash not explicate the persistence of militarization. To grasp the afloat picture, 1 indispensable crook to the home drivers that entrench this systemabove all, the governmental system of defence spending and the power of the military-industrial complex, which signifier the backbone of Americas militarized expansive strategy.

3)The Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy

If the planetary web of bases illustrates the outward geography of American power, the militarization of U.S. overseas argumentation reveals its interior logic. Over time, diplomacy and improvement person been progressively subordinated to subject priorities, portion information concerns person go the ascendant lens done which Washington interprets planetary affairs. This improvement reflects not lone organization dynamics successful Washington but besides the power of the defence industry, the logic of counterterrorism, and the securitization of issues that traditionally belonged to the civilian sphere.

A defining diagnostic of U.S. overseas argumentation is the preeminence of the Department of Defense implicit civilian institutions. While the State Department and USAID are tasked with diplomacy and development, they stay underfunded compared to the Pentagon, whose fund successful 2023 exceeded $860 cardinal (SIPRI 2024). This imbalance has produced what analysts telephone a militarization of diplomacy: crises are progressively managed done subject channels, portion civilian tools of struggle prevention and solution are marginalized (Gowan, 2021). The operation of U.S. combatant commands illustrates this phenomenon. Commands specified arsenic CENTCOM (Middle East), AFRICOM (Africa), and INDOPACOM (Indo-Pacific) relation arsenic determination proconsuls, exercising power that often exceeds that of ambassadors. The Pentagon has frankincense go not lone the executor but besides the designer of American planetary strategy.

The violent attacks of 9/11 accelerated this militarization. The War connected Terror turned into an open-ended planetary campaign, legitimizing the deployment of U.S. forces successful regions acold beyond the Middle East. Military tools became the default instruments of counterterrorism, from drone strikes successful Yemen and Somalia to peculiar operations crossed Africa and Asia. Although the Biden medication declared the extremity of the epoch of large-scale counterinsurgency, the militarized logic persists. The 2022 National Defense Strategy shifts the absorption from coercion to great-power competition, chiefly with China and Russia. Yet the strategical reflex remains the same: planetary challengeswhether cyber, climate, oregon technologicalare progressively framed successful subject terms, reinforcing the Pentagons primacy.

Another look of militarization is the normalization of interventionism. Since 1945, the U.S. has intervened militarily overseas much than 200 times (Kushi & Toft, 2022). These interventions, ranging from covert operations to full-scale wars, bespeak a content that U.S. information is inseparable from shaping governmental orders abroad. Even successful regions wherever nonstop interests are limited, subject beingness becomes an extremity successful itselfpreserving credibility, deterring rivals, oregon maintaining entree to resources. The wars successful Iraq and Libya, arsenic good arsenic the continuing strikes successful Syria, exemplify this logic of perpetual engagement. What emerges is not a strategy of selective defence but of proactive absorption of satellite bid done force.

The militarization of overseas argumentation is besides evident successful the increasing reliance connected drones and peculiar forces. Between 2001 and 2020, U.S. drone strikes killed thousands of suspected militants successful Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia (Bureau of Investigative Journalism, 2021). While reducing risks for U.S. troops, this strategy blurred the enactment betwixt warfare and peace, creating what Derek Gregory (2011) calls everyplace war. Simultaneously, the relation of U.S. Special Operations Forces has expanded dramatically: by 2022, they were deployed successful implicit 70 countries, conducting missions from grooming to nonstop enactment (Nagl & Burton, 2022). These trends reenforce a covert militarization of overseas policy, successful which warfare becomes permanent, dispersed, and normalized.

The dominance of subject instruments has profound implications. First, it undermines diplomacy: adversaries and partners alike comprehend U.S. argumentation arsenic chiefly coercive. Second, it contributes to cycles of instability: interventions intended to neutralize threats often make caller ones, arsenic seen successful the emergence of ISIS aft the Iraq invasion. Third, it erodes the normative legitimacy of the U.S.: civilian casualties from drone strikes, indefinite detentions astatine Guantnamo, and unilateral interventions weaken the credibility of American claims to support a rules-based order. In short, the militarization of overseas argumentation transforms the U.S. into what Michael Mann (2003) called an incoherent empire: unmatched successful subject capacity, but progressively incapable to person unit into durable governmental outcomes. The militarization of U.S. overseas argumentation frankincense highlights a deeper paradox: portion Washington presents itself arsenic a defender of wide planetary order, its reliance connected subject instruments often destabilizes that precise order. To recognize however this paradox plays retired successful practice, the adjacent conception turns to the determination theaters wherever American militarism is astir visibleEurope, the Middle East, Asia, and Africaeach offering a laboratory of some powerfulness projection and unintended consequences.

4)Militarization, World Order, and Strategic Backlash

Having explored the roots of militarism, its infrastructural reach, and its penetration of U.S. overseas policy, the last measurement is to measure its planetary repercussions. American militarization does not run successful a vacuum: it shapes, and is shaped by, the planetary order. While Washington frames its subject posture arsenic a guarantor of stableness and wide values, its reliance connected unit often generates resistance, rivalries, and unintended consequences that weaken its ain legitimacy. To grasp this dynamic, it is indispensable to analyse however militarism affects satellite order, fuels strategical backlash from adversaries, complicates alliances, and interacts with emerging multipolarity.

The U.S. subject beingness is officially justified arsenic a stabilizing factor, guaranteeing deterrence and protecting the alleged rules-based planetary order. Yet, successful practice, this posture often fuels the information dilemma: the precise deployments meant to reassure allies are perceived by rivals arsenic violative threats. For example, NATOs enlargement eastward and the build-up of U.S. forces successful Eastern Europeespecially aft Russias 2022 penetration of Ukraineare seen successful Moscow arsenic grounds of Western encirclement. This dynamic deepens confrontations, illustrating John Mearsheimers thesis successful The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2022) that unchecked powerfulness projection fosters insecurity alternatively than peace. Similarly, successful Asia, the strengthening of U.S. alliances and the instauration of information partnerships similar AUKUS oregon the Quad are interpreted by Beijing arsenic containment strategies. This cognition contributes to an accelerating arms race, from hypersonic weapons to naval expansion, raising the risks of miscalculation successful the South China Sea oregon astir Taiwan.

The militarization of U.S. overseas argumentation has encouraged the emergence of balancing coalitions. Russia and China, contempt humanities mistrust, person intensified their strategical concern arsenic a counterweight to American influence, coordinating subject exercises and expanding vigor and defence cooperation. Regional powers specified arsenic Iran, North Korea, and adjacent Turkey follow strategies of asymmetric balancing, relying connected missiles, drones, oregon hybrid warfare to offset U.S. superiority. This absorption illustrates the paradox of U.S. hegemony: overwhelming subject powerfulness generates some dependence (among allies) and defiance (among adversaries). Instead of consolidating a unipolar order, militarization accelerates a modulation toward multipolarity, wherever rival powers contention U.S. dominance crossed aggregate domains.

Another effect of U.S. militarization is the erosion of legitimacy. While Washington frames its interventions arsenic defending ideology and quality rights, galore planetary observers presumption them arsenic unilateral oregon selective. The 2003 penetration of Iraq, undertaken without UN approval, remains a stark illustration of however the usage of unit undermines the precise norms the U.S. claims to uphold. Civilian casualties from drone strikes, indefinite detentions, and the cognition of treble standardsdefending planetary instrumentality against adversaries portion exempting alliesfurther weaken U.S. credibility. According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, spot successful the U.S. arsenic a planetary person remains precocious successful immoderate allied countries but has declined importantly successful parts of the Global South, wherever Washington is seen arsenic imposing alternatively than upholding rules.

By prioritizing unilateral subject solutions, the U.S. besides weakens multilateral institutions. During the Cold War, American enactment was partially exercised done institutions similar the UN, NATO, and the Bretton Woods system. Today, however, militarized approaches often bypass these frameworks, sidelining diplomacy and eroding corporate legitimacy. For instance, the involution successful Libya successful 2011, initially authorized by the UN Security Council, rapidly exceeded its mandate of civilian extortion and became a regime-change operationprovoking semipermanent instability and skepticism toward Western interventions. Similarly, drone campaigns successful countries specified arsenic Pakistan oregon Somalia often hap without the consent of big governments, undermining sovereignty and the credibility of planetary law.

Militarization besides produces unintended consequences among allies. While galore states trust connected U.S. information guarantees, they progressively question Washingtons reliability and motives. The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan successful 2021 raised doubts successful European capitals astir Americas commitment, fueling debates connected European strategical autonomy. At the aforesaid time, adversaries construe U.S. militarization arsenic justification for accelerating their ain subject programs. Iran deepens its rocket and drone capabilities, North Korea continues atomic testing, and China modernizes its atomic arsenaldevelopments that Washingtons posture was meant to deter but alternatively seems to encourage.

5)The New Frontiers of Militarization: Cyber, Space, and Multi-Domain Operations

While overmuch of U.S. militarism has historically relied connected accepted powerfulness projection and planetary basing, the aboriginal of warfare is rapidly shifting toward caller domains. Cyber operations, abstraction militarization, and integrated multi-domain warfare correspond the cutting borderline of American strategical thinking. These emerging frontiers widen militarization beyond accepted battlefields, embedding it successful integer infrastructures, orbital environments, and interconnected bid systems. To grasp the transformation, it is indispensable to research however these domains are being militarized, the opportunities they provide, and the risks they present for planetary information and stability.

U.S. subject powerfulness is nary longer confined to land, sea, and air. The emergence of cyber and abstraction domains has expanded the geography of struggle into caller frontiers. The Pentagon present conceptualizes warfare arsenic multi-domain operations (MDOs)the seamless integration of operations crossed accepted and caller theaters. This doctrinal improvement reflects some technological advances and the designation that great-power rivalry present extends beyond carnal battlefields. The United States has invested massively successful cyber capabilities, designating cyberspace arsenic a domain of warfare successful 2010. U.S. Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) conducts some antiaircraft and violative missions, ranging from protecting captious infrastructure to executing persistent engagement operations against adversaries.

Reports suggest that U.S. cyber operations person targeted Russian disinformation campaigns, Iranian infrastructure, and Chinese espionage networks (Healey, 2022). Yet the violative usage of cyber tools raises concerns astir escalation and attribution: a cyber onslaught tin provoke retaliation successful unpredictable ways, blurring the bound betwixt warfare and peace. Moreover, the centrality of American tech giantsMicrosoft, Google, Amazonin defence contracts (notably the $9 cardinal Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability) reveals the heavy entanglement betwixt Silicon Valley and the Pentagon. This fusion of subject and integer powerfulness extends U.S. power but besides exposes vulnerabilities, arsenic dependence connected backstage actors introduces questions of accountability and resilience.

The instauration of the U.S. Space Force successful 2019 formalized the militarization of outer space. Washington views satellites arsenic captious to communications, navigation, intelligence, and targeting. Protecting these assets is present considered a priority, particularly fixed Chinas and Russias demonstrated anti-satellite capabilities. The deployment of space-based sensors, rocket defence systems, and plans for orbital logistics bespeak a strategy of dominance alternatively than specified deterrence. However, the lack of robust planetary norms connected abstraction militarization increases the hazard of an arms contention successful orbit. A azygous incidentsuch arsenic the demolition of a satellitecould make cascading debris and destabilize planetary infrastructure.

Another frontier is the integration of artificial quality (AI) into subject operations. The U.S. Department of Defenses Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) coordinates projects ranging from predictive logistics to autonomous weapons systems. The extremity is to accelerate decision-making and summation superiority successful what subject theorists telephone the OODA loop (observeorientdecideact). Programs specified arsenic Project Maven, designed to analyse drone footage utilizing AI, exemplify this shift. Yet ethical and strategical concerns abound: the delegation of lethal decisions to algorithms raises profound questions of accountability, portion adversaries accelerated advancement successful AI intensifies the race. As scholars similar Paul Scharre (2018) warn, the diffusion of AI risks lowering the threshold for struggle by making warfare faster, much automated, and perchance little controllable.

The enlargement into cyber, space, and AI illustrates the paradox of American militarization: innovations designed to guarantee superiority tin make caller insecurities. U.S. dominance successful integer and abstraction infrastructures provokes rivals to accelerate their ain programs, from Chinas BeiDou navigation strategy to Russias cyber militias. Instead of consolidating hegemony, technological militarization multiplies the arenas of confrontation, making escalation much hard to control. In this sense, the U.S. pursuit of multi-domain dominance reinforces the strategical paradox: by seeking information done enlargement of subject powerfulness into each domain, Washington risks creating an progressively unstable and fragmented satellite order. The enlargement of militarization into cyber, space, and multi-domain warfare demonstrates that American strategical civilization is not retreating from militarism but reinventing it. These innovations whitethorn fortify U.S. dominance successful the abbreviated term, but they besides hazard escalating arms races, undermining norms, and entrenching a rhythm of insecurity astatine the planetary level.

Conclusion: The Strategic Paradox of U.S. Military Power

The United States remains the worlds preeminent subject power, with a planetary web of bases, unmatched technological capabilities, and a defence fund larger than those of the adjacent 10 countries combined. This unparalleled capableness allows Washington to task unit rapidly, reassure allies, and deter adversaries crossed aggregate continents. Yet, the precise foundations of American information strategy uncover a heavy paradox: the much the U.S. relies connected militarization to signifier satellite order, the much it generates instability, backlash, and contestation.

The militarization of U.S. overseas policymanifest successful the dominance of the Pentagon, the normalization of interventionism, and the enlargement into caller domains specified arsenic cyber and spacehas produced unintended consequences. Allies oscillate betwixt dependence and mistrust, adversaries respond with asymmetric strategies, and planetary institutions are weakened. Instead of consolidating a unchangeable wide order, the U.S. often accelerates multipolar fragmentation, arsenic rising powers situation its dominance successful progressively divers arenas. The reliance connected subject solutions undermines diplomacy and erodes legitimacy. Civilian casualties, selective interventions, and the cognition of treble standards weaken U.S. credibility, particularly successful the Global South. As Washington continues to framework challenges done the prism of security, it risks perpetuating cycles of escalation and diminishing its quality to execute durable governmental outcomes.

Looking ahead, the paradox of American powerfulness lies successful its dual identity: an indispensable guarantor of planetary information for some, but besides a destabilizing hegemon for others. The aboriginal of satellite bid volition beryllium not lone connected the U.S.s capableness to support its subject superiority but besides connected its willingness to rebalance its strategyprivileging diplomacy, multilateral cooperation, and non-military instruments of power. Without specified recalibration, the United States whitethorn find that its unparalleled subject strength, alternatively than ensuring peace, becomes a cardinal operator of planetary insecurity. As the planetary strategy shifts toward multipolarity, the U.S. faces a captious choice: proceed connected a way of militarization that risks deepening the paradox, oregon clasp a much holistic conception of powerfulness that aligns subject capableness with governmental legitimacy. Only the second offers the imaginable of transforming Americas subject mightiness from a root of instability into a instauration for a much durable and inclusive peace.

References

Reports and Databases

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Trends successful World Military Expenditure 2024. Fact Sheet, April 2025.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Trends successful World Military Expenditure 2023. Fact Sheet, April 2024.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Trends successful World Military Expenditure 2022. Fact Sheet, April 2023.

Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Military Expenditure Database (19492024).

International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). The Military Balance 2024. London: Routledge, 2024.

Press Articles (referencing SIPRI/IISS data)

Reuters. Growth successful Global Military Spending Accelerated successful 2023, Think-Tank SIPRI Says. April 22, 2024.

Financial Times. Global Military Spending Reaches Record Levels amid Rising Geopolitical Tensions. April 22, 2024.

Le Monde. No Region of the World Is Exempt from Rising Military Spending. April 23, 2024.

Business Insider. The US Spends More connected Defense than Federal Education, and More than the Next 10 Countries Combined. April 24, 2023.

Academic Books and Articles

Scharre, Paul. Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War. New York: W. W. Norton, 2018.

Healey, Jason. The Implications of Persistent Engagement successful Cyberspace. Journal of Cyber Policy, 2022.

Nye, Joseph S. Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Walt, Stephen M. The Hell of Good Intentions: Americas Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018.

Further Reading connected E-International Relations

• Opinion Reassessing Military Misconceptions successful the American-Japanese Alliance
• Not So Bad After All: How US Foreign Policy Could Navigate a Multipolar World
• American Support for Closing Military Bases Abroad May Depend connected How You Ask
• Security Cooperation arsenic Remote Warfare: The US successful the Horn of Africa
• Human Rights and Civilian Harm successful Security Cooperation: A Framework of Analysis
• Asian Security amid Chinas Dominance

About The Author(s)

Dr. Tewfik Hamelis a researcher and lecturer specializing successful strategical studies, subject history, and geopolitics. He holds a PhD successful past from Paul-Valry University (Montpellier, France) and presently teaches successful the Strasbourg Academy. He is besides an subordinate researcher astatine the Conservatoire National des Arts et Mtiers (France), the Initiative for Peace and Security successful Africa (Senegal), and the Institute for Applied Geopolitical Studies (France). His caller enactment focuses connected modern subject doctrines, information dynamics successful the MENA region, and the interplay betwixt exertion and warfare. He regularly contributes to world and argumentation journals, including Scurit Globale and Revue de Dfense Nationale.

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