FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 3, 2005
Contact: Cara Santos Pianesi, csantos@CarnegieEndowment.org, 202/939-2211
Carnegie senior associate Ashley J. Tellis argues that though the war on terrorism has dominated public attention throughout the Bush presidency, the administration’s biggest challenges are twofold: defending the country against terrorism and, of equal importance, protecting U.S. primacy on the international stage in the future. Tellis’ Assessing America’s War on Terror: Confronting Insurgency, Cementing Primacy in the newest NBR Analysis marks the first time The National Bureau of Asian Research report has been co-sponsored with another institution¾ the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Access the report at www.CarnegieEndowment.org/USrole .
On balance, the United States has managed the challenges of confronting terrorism and anchoring its global primacy with partial success. Tellis contends that improvements to America’s strategic position are offset by setbacks in the war on terrorism and failure to make U.S. hegemony more palatable to the international community. The war on terrorism must not be prosecuted at the cost of the legitimacy of American power and its economic foundations. Failure here risks far-reaching reverberations that may undermine the world’s sole superpower.
In addition to addressing the war on terrorism and focusing in particular on Asia in the context of larger geopolitical changes, Assessing America’s War on Terror: Confronting Insurgency, Cementing Primacy evaluates conceptual issues arising from the war that have practical applications for foreign policy. The report also analyzes terrorist groups as substatal actors and discusses their influence on the dynamics of the international system.
The report concludes by outlining the current challenges to combating terrorism while maintaining U.S. primacy and offers relevant lessons for U.S. grand strategy into the future.
Ashley J. Tellis is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, research director of NBR’s Strategic Asia Program, and co-editor of Strategic Asia 2004–05. This paper is a longer, more detailed study of one published in the new volume Strategic Asia 2004–05: Confronting Terrorism in the Pursuit of Power (The National Bureau of Asian Research, 2004). For further information about the Strategic Asia Program at NBR, visit http://strategicasia.nbr.org.
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