Should the U.S. be the world's policeman?

Abstract

Forty years of Cold War left the U.S. with many legacies, most notably a huge military‐industrial complex and a staggering national debt. An additional legacy has been its self‐assigned role as world policeman. The U.S. led the Western world in what it viewed as resisting Soviet expansion; now it's difficult to surrender the marshal's baton—particularly since it still maintains the world's most powerful military forces.

Unfortunately, serving as the cop on a global beat costs a great deal. With a military budget of $265 billion per year, the U.S. still spends about 90 to 95% as much, in real terms, as it spent throughout the Cold War. Being a global cop is also costly in human lives. In the armed services each year about 600 American servicemen and women die in accidents while 1.5 million troops are kept at a high state of readiness for combat action. Others die in terrorist acts such as the one in Saudi Arabia in June 1996. Because Americans may not be forever willing to pay, in blood and treasure, these costs of being the global policeman, we should consider whether any alternative to U.S. military leadership exists. And would American leaders be wise enough to consider such an alternative?