front cover of Alignment, Alliance, and American Grand Strategy
Alignment, Alliance, and American Grand Strategy
Zachary Selden
University of Michigan Press, 2016
Although US foreign policy was largely unpopular in the early 2000s, many nation-states, especially those bordering Russia and China, expanded their security cooperation with the United States. In Alignment, Alliance, and American Grand Strategy, Zachary Selden notes that the regional power of these two illiberal states prompt threatened neighboring states to align with the United States. Gestures of alignment include participation in major joint military exercises, involvement in US-led operations, the negotiation of agreements for US military bases, and efforts to join a US-led alliance. By contrast, Brazil is also a rising regional power, but as it is a democratic state, its neighbors have not sought greater alliance with the United States.
 
Amid calls for retrenchment or restraint, Selden makes the case that a policy focused on maintaining American military preeminence and the demonstrated willingness to use force may be what sustains the cooperation of second-tier states, which in turn help to maintain US hegemony at a manageable cost.

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front cover of No Peer Rivals
No Peer Rivals
American Grand Strategy in the Era of Great Power Competition
Ionut Popescu
University of Michigan Press, 2025
With military maneuvers in Taiwan and the South China Sea and the eruption of war in Ukraine, the past few years have brought deteriorating diplomatic relations and increasing military and economic tensions between the United States, China, and Russia. After benefiting from the geopolitical and financial advantages conferred by a privileged status as a global superpower for three decades, the United States needs to adapt to a geopolitical shift toward competition and confrontation in order to contain China’s quest for global superpower status.
 
No Peer Rivals takes a major staple of International Relations scholarship—the offensive realist paradigm—and develops a comprehensive and practical grand strategy for the United States in this new era of Great Power Competition. The No Peer Rival framework is grounded in a realistic assessment of the most likely courses of action adopted by China, Russia, and other important regional powers. It prioritizes great power rivalry over other strategic goals, and identifies China as the biggest threat to America’s unique position in the international system. This grand strategic approach carefully aligns the domestic sources of national power (economic strength, energy security, and technological prowess) to America’s foreign policy and national security objectives. In addition to recommending necessary changes to America’s military and diplomatic strategies, No Peer Rivals also demonstrates that a realistic approach to industrial policy, international trade, energy production, and technological superiority offers the best chance for developing the sinews of power needed to outcompete Beijing in the long run.
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