As the world shifts away from the unquestioned American hegemony that followed in the wake of the Cold War, the United States is likely to face new kinds of threats and sharper resource constraints than it has in the past. However, the country's alliances, military institutions, and national security strategy have changed little since the Cold War. American foreign and defense policies, therefore, should be assessed for their fitness for achieving sustainable national security amidst the dynamism of the international political economy, changing domestic politics, and even a changing climate.This book brings together sixteen leading scholars from across political science, history, and political economy to highlight a range of American security considerations that deserve a larger role in both scholarship and strategic decision-making. In these chapters, scholars of political economy and the American defense budget examine the economic engine that underlies U.S. military might and the ways the country deploys these vast (but finite) resources. Historians illuminate how past great powers coped with changing international orders through strategic and institutional innovations. And regional experts assess America's current long-term engagements, from NATO to the chaos of the Middle East to the web of alliances in Asia, deepening understandings that help guard against both costly commitments and short-sighted retrenchments.This interdisciplinary volume sets an agenda for future scholarship that links politics, economics, and history in pursuit of sustainable security for the United States - and greater peace and stability for Americans and non-Americans alike.

INTRODUCTIONSustaining Security: Rethinking American National Security StrategyJeremi Suri and Benjamin ValentinoSECTION I: RECALIBRATING NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY1. Dollar Diminution and New Macroeconomic Constraints on American PowerJonathan Kirshner2. Does American Military Power Attract Foreign Investment?Daniel Drezner and Nancy Hite-Rubin3. Preserving National Strength in a Period of Fiscal RestraintCindy Williams4. State Finance and National Power: Great Britain, China, and the United States in Historical PerspectiveJeremi Suri5. Reforming American Power: Civilian National Security Institutions in the Early Cold War and BeyondWilliam Inboden6. To Starve an Army: How Great Power Armies Respond to AusterityJohn W. Hall7. Climate Change and US National Security: Sustaining Security Amidst UnsustainabilityJoshua William BusbySECTION II: REGIONAL SECURITY COMMITMENTS8. At Home Abroad: Public Attitudes towards America's Overseas CommitmentsBenjamin Valentino9. The Right Choice for NATOWilliam Wohlforth10. The United States and the Middle East: Interests, Risks, and CostsDaniel Byman and Sara Bjerg Moller11. Keep, Toss, or Fix? Assessing US Alliances in East AsiaJennifer Lind12. Terminating the Interminable?Sumit Ganguly13. Neutralizing the Problem of AfghanistanAudrey Kurth CroninCONCLUSIONJeremi Suri and Benjamin Valentino