The limits and temptations of America's conventional military primacy

The United States today enjoys a measure of conventional military primacy unprecedented in world history. However, the obvious advantages of that primacy, including deterrence of conventional attack, must be weighed against its accumulating disadvantages. Primacy has accelerated enemy investment in asymmetric responses; renewed US interest in preventive war; and heightened Pentagon insensitivity to the difficulties of converting easy military victories into lasting political successes. Current US difficulties in Iraq are rooted in these unintended consequences of primacy. This is not an argument for abandoning primacy; rather, it is a call to appreciate its costs and risks as well as its benefits and opportunities.