Power and Superpower: Global Leadership and Exceptionalism in the 21st Century

The United States entered the twenty-first century as a global leader, emulated for its ideals as much as it is respected for its power to shape events. American leadership served as the bedrock for the international order, promoting prosperity and peace both at home and abroad. But in the first years of the new century, U.S. foreign policy--exemplified by war in Iraq, the rejection of international treaties, and disregard for traditional allies--gave the impression to many that the United States had abandoned that leadership role in favor of one premised on military power.In Power and Superpower, some of the United States' most distinguished and experienced policymakers and experts outline a foreign policy that would allow America to reclaim its status as a reliable and visionary global leader. The essays identify the pressing foreign policy issues currently facing the United States and provide analysis to underpin a progressive foreign policy that would call upon all of America's strengths and respect the commitments we share with the rest of the world.Contributors include Madeleine Albright (former secretary of state), Yaeli Bloch-Elkon (Columbia University), Nancy Birdsall (Center for Global Development), Mark Malloch Brown (deputy secretary general, United Nations),Wesley K. Clark (U.S.Army, ret.), Eileen Claussen (Pew Center on Global Climate Change), Ivo H. Daalder (Brookings), Elliot Diringer (Pew Center on Global Climate Change), James Dobbins (RAND Corporation), David P. Forsythe (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), Ken Gude (Center for American Progress), Charles A. Kupchan (Georgetown University), Robert Kuttner (American Prospect), Robert Z. Lawrence (Harvard University), Jim Leach (former U.S. representative, Iowa), Richard C. Leone (The Century Foundation), Michael McFaul (Stanford University), Stewart Patrick (Center for Global Development), John D. Podesta (Center for American Progress), Susan Rice (Brookings Institution), John G. Ruggie (Harvard University), William F. Schulz (Center for American Progress), Robert Y. Shapiro (Columbia University), Gayle Smith (Center for American Progress), George Soros (Open Society Institute), James B. Steinberg (Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas), Daniel Tarullo (Georgetown University), Peter L.Trubowitz (University of Texas at Austin), and Milan Vaishnav (Center for Global Development).

Morton H. Halperin is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and director of U.S. advocacy for the Open Society Institute. He served in the federal government in the Clinton, Nixon, and Johnson administrations, most recently from December 1998 to January 2001 as director of the Policy Planning Staff at the Department of State. Jeffrey Laurenti is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation. As a senior adviser to the United Nations Foundation, he served as deputy director of the United Nations and Global Security Initiative. He was executive director of policy studies at the United Nations Association of the United States until 2003, and currently serves on the association's board of directors. Peter Rundlet is vice president and managing director for national security at the Center for American Progress. Prior to this, he was counsel to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) and was associate counsel to the president during the Clinton administration. Spencer P. Boyer is director of international law and diplomacy in the National Security and International Policy Department at the Center for American Progress. He was previously the executive director and War Powers Initiative director at the Constitution Project, based at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, and has served with international courts and tribunals in The Hague, Zurich, and Paris.