The United States has been a territorially, culturally, and economically expansionist power for most of its history. But it was not until the early 1940s that decision-makers in Washington embraced a grand strategy of global military dominance (Bessner 2022). America’s safety and democracy, as well as global stability, would be ensured through America’s domination of the globe as a whole and the prevention of the emergence of any would-be hegemons. 

However, research shows that this grand strategy has not made America or the world safer and more stable (Bacevich 2021; Hartung 2022; Lieven 2021). Instead, it has fueled US military interventions (roughly a quarter of all of America’s military interventions since 1776 took place even after the fall of the Berlin Wall; Toft & Kushi 2022), led to endless wars, depleted America’s coffins, all while contributing to the weakening of democracy at home.

Arguing from the perspective of “Restraint” (Walt 2019) this paper will contribute to the theoretical discussion between democratic peace theory and realism. Given the outcomes of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the two-decades-long occupation of Afghanistan, and the NATO intervention in Libya in 2011, there will be a paramount risk for a new dark era of Great Power competition if the search for global dominance advances. If Washington continues to link American security to the nature of other states' internal political systems, it inevitably pushes the United States to continue an interventionist strategic posture (Layne 1994 & 2006), which in the increasingly multipolar world will be detrimental to both American security and global stability.

This paper will present and explain what this alternative American grand strategy would entail for the United States and the world. It explains how the United States can shift to a national security doctrine that puts climate chaos at the center and uses economic and diplomatic engagement - rather than military domination - to achieve American security and peaceful co-existence with emerging great powers.