Future of US foreign policy - Essay Example

by, as well as the concomitant recession; the United States is essentially going broke (Mandelbaum, The Frugal Superpower: Americas Global Leadership in a Cash-Strapped Era). This year alone, the United States registered a $1.3trillion deficit. This means that it will have to find a way of paying for the outsized foreign policy it has; possibly borrow every Penny of the amount. Michael Mandelbaum, the author of Frugal Superpower and a professor at the JHU School of Advanced International Studies, is quick to point out how President Obama, in his speech given at the West Point, talked a lot about limits.

The President was talking about the intentions he had about escalating the war. “For even when he ordered his troops to the war in Afghanistan, the President sought to put limits on the time of their stay, as well as the mission that they were meant to carry out; and he did not forget to clarify the reasons for the limits. He said that America was not able to afford doing anymore other than what had been specified. The most vital theme from the remarks he put across was that he acknowledged the economic constraints America was having especially on its foreign policy; this is a theme that is hardly ever heard from American presidents, last time it was heard was when Roosevelt took America into the second world war” America’s time as the sole world power that is able to impose all its wills on any country everywhere in this world is coming to an end (Mandelbaum, Americas Coming Retrenchment).

While this could be seen as a result of the aspect of the international environment, but it isn’t exactly that. As a matter of fact, it is just a recent history artifact whose life was short. Mr. Mandelbaum tries to address the question, now what? Mr. Mandelbaum tries to face up to the “the tyranny of numbers.” The United States of America does not enjoy the luxury of infinite resources it used to have and that was available for any project it deemed desirable or