First Among Equals

A fresh, concise roadmap for U.S. grand strategy in a multipolar world

For the past thirty years, post–Cold War triumphalism and a desire to reshape the world have defined U.S. foreign policy. But the failures of the global war on terror, the return of conflict to Europe, and growing tensions with China all suggest that this approach to the world is flawed. For America—the country that has ruled the international system largely alone since 1991—this moment is particularly perilous. Can policymakers adapt U.S. foreign policy to better fit the twenty-first century, and in doing so, avoid the pitfalls and excesses of the last three decades?

In First Among Equals, Emma Ashford proposes a return to a more pragmatic, realist set of strategic principles, ones better suited for the emerging multipolar world, and which would pursue narrower U.S. interests, cultivate the capabilities of friendly states, and emphasize room for maneuver over rigid alliances. In so doing, she provides a valuable counterpart to liberal internationalist works published to date and fills a key gap in existing foreign policy literature.