5 Steps for America to Retake Global Leadership

As we approach the end of a long and complex year, and a turbulent election that saw a change of power in the House, it seems an appropriate time to hit pause and contemplate an approach toward a long-term global strategy for our country. We live in a highly tactical age, one that often seems categorized by the old saying, “the carnival moves on.” We seemingly have lost the collective ability to stop and consider where America needs to set its course.

Strategy is actually simple: it is the rationalization of ends, ways and means. But in today’s America, we have extreme difficulty staying focused on a single set of ends (what we want to accomplish); ways (how do we accomplish our goals?); and means (how do we pay for it?). Having spent a lifetime studying, developing and executing strategy, I have come to understand that simpler and shorter are better. Here I offer you a brief teaser on what our global strategy should encompass as we head toward the end of the second decade of this turbulent century.