The New Grand Strategy ─ Restoring America's Prosperity, Security, and Sustainability in the 21st Century

In 2009, Mark Mykleby, a Marine colonel, was summoned to the Pentagon along with a fellow officer and charged with a seemingly impossible task: to create a new national grand strategy for America. They developed a paper - later published by the Wilson Center as the National Strategic Narrative - that posited economic sustainability, not weapons systems, terrorism or the next war, is the key to America's successful path forward in the 21st century. For the first time, the Pentagon publicly recognized that America's prosperity and global influence depends not on our investment in military defense, but in our domestic future. The good news? For the first time since the end of WWII, demographic trends and advances in housing, transportation, farming, and resource utilization are aligned and together offer power great enough to effect systemic change. Things like walkable communities, regenerative agriculture, and resource productivity can be our saving grace. We can still do something - if we act fast.

In The New Grand Strategy, Mykleby joins Patrick Doherty, a national security expert at the New America, and Joel Makower, an award-winning journalist focusing on corporate sustainability strategy, to expand the original grand strategy paper for a popular audience. They believe firmly that we have the fuel to restore prosperity, competitiveness, fiscal discipline, and security for generations to come - if only we'd use it.

Mark Mykleby is a retired Marine Colonel and co-director of the Strategic Innovation Lab at Case Western Reserve University.

Patrick Doherty is a macroeconomic strategist and co-director of the Strategic Innovation Lab.

Joel Makower, chairman and executive editor of GreenBiz Group, is an award-winning author of more than a dozen books and a senior fellow at the Strategic Innovation Lab.