Preventive Engagement
How America Can Avoid War, Stay Strong, and Keep the Peace
December 4, 2017
Stares proposes a comprehensive new strategy for how the United States can manage an increasingly turbulent world and reduce the risk of costly military commitments.
To remain the preeminent global power, the United States must avoid costly conflicts that drain its resources and distract its leadership from addressing pressing domestic priorities, argues Paul B. Stares in his new book, Preventive Engagement: How America Can Avoid War, Stay Strong, and Keep the Peace. Doing so requires that the United States adopt a more forward-looking and preventive approach to managing foreign policy challenges.
“As the principal guarantor of global peace and security, America is—like no other country—at great risk of being drawn into potentially costly military engagements to counter emerging threats to international order,” warns Stares. The United States can avoid overextending itself by adopting “a comprehensive preventive strategy to manage the risks of a more turbulent world so as to lessen the likelihood that it will be increasingly confronted and potentially overwhelmed with excruciating and hugely consequential choices about the use of military force.”