Americas_Role_in_the_World


Mission and Programs
The Institute for the Study of Diplomacy (ISD), founded in 1978, is part
of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service
and is the School’s primary window on the world of the foreign affairs
practitioner.
ISD studies the practitioner’s craft: how diplomats and other foreign
affairs professionals succeed and the lessons to be learned from their
successes and failures. Institute programs focus particular attention on
the foreign policy process: how decisions are made and implemented.
ISD conducts its programs through a small staff and resident and nonresident
associates. Associates, who include U.S. and foreign government
officials and other foreign affairs practitioners, are detailed to or
affiliated with the Institute for a year or more. The Institute seeks to build
academic-practitioner collaborations around issues.


Contents
PREFACE v
INTRODUCTION 1
Structure of the Report 3
Choices for the Future 4
List of Thirteen Choices 7
Drivers of Change 8
I
FROM ORDER TO
DISORDER
9
Background 9
Globalizing Integration and Its Costs 10
Fragmentation and Its Costs 13
Shifts in State Power 15
Finally 16
II
CHALLENGES
FOR THE NEXT
PRESIDENT
17
Background 17
Challenges 19
Leadership Challenges 19
Regional Challenges 21
Functional Challenges 24
III
AMERICA’S
“CAPACITY” TO
CONDUCT
FOREIGN POLICY
29
What is Meant by Capacity? 29
Why Capacity Matters 30
Challenges to U.S. Decision-making 32
Executive Branch Challenges 32
Legislative Challenges 38
Budgetary Challenges 39
IV
LESSONS AND
LEGACIES OF IRAQ
41
Never Again 42
Do It Better/Differently 43
V
FOREIGN POLICY
CHOICES FOR THE
NEXT PRESIDENT
47
The Context 47
Section I: Organizing Presidential Decisions 49
Opening Decisions 49
In-Box Decisions 52
Framing Decisions 53
Long-Term Decisions 54
Section II: Thirteen Choices 55
Getting Our Own House in Order
1. Foreign Policy Tools and American Capacity 55
2. Globalization and America 57
3. Energy Consumption and America 59
Seeking the Initiative Abroad
4. Values and American Foreign Policy 60
5. Institutions, Alliances, and Coalitions 61
Regaining Global Leadership
6. Iraq 63
7. Iran 65
8. Arab-Israeli Conflicts 66
9. Fragile States 68
10. Major Powers 69
11. International Terrorism 71
12. Nuclear Proliferation 73
13. Environmental Challenges 74
APPENDICES 1. Core Members, Working Group 77
2. Doha Meeting Participants 86