4 - Wars on Multiple Fronts

Summary

This chapter explores how the principle that America’s security rests upon global military supremacy – achieved through the ability to fight wars on multiple fronts – emerged as a strategic consensus in the aftermath of the Cold War. It dissects and analyzes the bargaining dynamics within the US defense establishment and reveals how reorienting the foundations of US defense strategy towards rogue states as the primary source of uncertainty and insecurity went hand-in-hand with defining the maintenance of overwhelming US hard power as an important end in itself. This facilitated a creative recombination of known policy elements and frames, leading to ‘new’ window dressing for strategic models that closely resembled Cold War templates.