A Crisis of American Power: Competing for Legitimacy, Influence, and Capacity in the 21st Century
by Kyle Ramsay
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06.06.2025 at 06:00am
Introduction
American power is in crisis, and with it, America’s role in the global system. More than thirty years after the end of the Cold War and nearly twenty-four after 9/11, is America still leader of the free world; the self-appointed “indispensable nation”? More importantly, does it want to be?
The security challenges facing the US and the broader global community are increasingly transnational, interconnected, and disruptive, and America continues to be viewed, and act, as the primary security guarantor. In reacting to these “compound security threats” (CSTs) to global stability and US geopolitical primacy, America has too often conflated military force with national power, “contributing to errors in strategic judgement and actions”. This crucial misinterpretation of Newton’s definition of power—force displaced over time—has resulted in two decades of sustained global conflict with inconclusive or failed end states, the progressive alienation of once staunch Western and regional allies, and the rapid erosion of American legitimacy, influence, and perceived capacity and desire to effect positive, sustained change within the global system. Consequently, the US is overextended politically, economically, and militarily, the international security environment is markedly more unstable, and American society, socio-politically polarized and war-weary, is demanding the administration refocus national attention and resources on domestic “nation building” rather than foreign interventionism.
Thus, US power is at an inflection point, where the choices made in the near term will determine America’s geopolitical role, influence, and manner of engagement within the international system in the 21st Century. This paper will present a prescription for a more adaptive, nuanced, and restrained application of American national power in support of strategic policy through discussion of three “American crises” arenas—grand strategy, humanitarianism, and identity.
https://smallwarsjournal.com/2025/06/06/a-crisis-of-american-power-competing-for-legitimacy-influence-and-capacity-in-the-21st-century/
