A resurgent Russia has exposed a crisis in confidence manifest in the dearth of a “strategic vision” and the failure to find a “compelling narrative” on both sides of the Atlantic. Instructive inspiration for what Helmut Schmidt called a “grand strategy for the West” can be found in John F. Kennedy’s “mutually beneficial partnership” to harmonize disparate European and American interests – an idea whose time has come more due to the constraints of a complex and hyper-connected environment and the restraints of diminishing strategic resources than recent crises. More than anything else, a values-based grand strategy must see peace and peacebuilding as a pragmatic path of applied grand or geopolitical strategy, inclusive of national security strategy, rather than just an ideal end state. It must shape this emergent strategic narrative and the moral consensus for compelling action from the bottom up as much as the top down, fostering the relationships between peoples as much as governments. Building, maintaining, and applying this unique strategic and operational capital will go far to strengthen the most stable, secure, and prosperous transoceanic basin in the world for decades to come and meet the threats, challenges, and opportunities it faces.
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