Commentary
The United States has, since the removal of President Richard Nixon in 1974, been moving along a strategic trajectory largely determined by its adversaries.
Strategic success is associated with achieving identified goals and moving upon a trajectory determined by sovereign will rather than by an external force, especially the force of an adversary. So how, a half-century ago, was the situation transformed for the United States—and, along with it, the West—and in a manner that has lain undetected since that time?
Few observers, particularly 50 years later, are aware that the paths of the great powers have been anything other than a natural linear extrapolation of their paths at that time. The pivotal change that led to the current global balance of power was achieved without a great interstate kinetic war….