5This is a book on how to think - strategically - about foreign policy. Focusing on the American experience, it defines the national interest as a concept in strategic logic and describes how to select objectives that will take advantage of opportunities to promote interests, while protecting them against threats. It also discusses national power and influence, as well as the political, informational, economic, and military instruments of state power. Based on a graphic framework that models strategic interrelationships, the book is illustrated with numerous examples from recent American statecraft. It ends with an extended critique of current American foreign policy and a detailed outline of an alternative strategy better suited to the problems of the 21st century.