--- title: Command Post: Are America's Military Ambitions Too Far-Reaching? | TIME description: What is the proper role for America's military in the 21st century? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security. canonical: https://time.com/video/zcstYW2h/ og:title: Command Post: Are America's Military Ambitions Too Far-Reaching? og:description: What is the proper role for America's military in the 21st century? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security. og:url: https://time.com/video/zcstYW2h/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zcstYW2h/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Command Post: Are America's Military Ambitions Too Far-Reaching? twitter:description: What is the proper role for America's military in the 21st century? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/zcstYW2h/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Command Post: Are America's Military Ambitions Too Far-Reaching? > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Command Post: Are America's Military Ambitions Too Far-Reaching? [Watch (HLS stream): Command Post: Are America's Military Ambitions Too Far-Reaching?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/zcstYW2h.m3u8) (4:50)  _Published 2011-07-21. What is the proper role for America's military in the 21st century? A discussion between TIME and the Center for a New American Security._ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:15 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [How America's Best Place to Live Got to Be That Way](/video/el1Spg4I/) ### How America's Best Place to Live Got to Be That Way [America’s Youngest Convicted Murderers](/video/2zI3yyuL/) ### America’s Youngest Convicted Murderers [This Is How You Resurrect America's Dying Malls](/video/Zbvt9iWn/) ### This Is How You Resurrect America's Dying Malls --- ## Transcript This is Command Post, a series of discussions about military matters from Time and the Center for a New American Security. We often talk of America as the indispensable nation. Is that a fair burden for this country to care, carry going forward? Are our military ambitions sometimes too far reaching? You know, it's a department of defense. It's not a department of go everywhere in the world and see where there is trouble that we can squish out. What is the proper role of America in the 21st century? Well I think in many ways our global military posture today is a reaction to some very hard lessons Americans learn from World War I and World War II. That we recognize that for each of those conflicts, that America had to play a bigger role in the world. And it couldn't simply pull back inside of it's borders. Use those two big oceans as protection and live a isolated life that's not connected to the rest of the world. That the advent of the information age has only made that more acute here in the last 10 years and perhaps the 9 / 11 attacks are the most poignant reminder of that here, you know, our recent history, we, we never experienced anything like that before in the entire length of the nation's history. We, we're living in the interconnected world. We're also, I think, in my view, one of the most benevolent powers in the interconnected world. There are other actors out there who are growing in prominence and strength. Their outlook, their democratic systems or lack there of, how they look at power is untested right now. And I think we have to remain concerned about that. The rest of the world is very concerned about that. So, as our, as our members of our, of our think tank travel around the world, the question I hear the most is, is America in the decline? And that's always asked with a worried brow. And a great deal a concern about the benevolent role the United States has played. We do need to get our friends to, to contribute more, to share more and to, to carve out more of their budget into the things we're paying for now in this global defense arena. But we still have a very significant responsibility to ourself at home and to the broader world. There is a streak in, in American foreign policy going back decades but that is resurfacing now about isolation, particularly in the aftermath, or what's seen as the aftermath, of Afghanistan and Iraq, a tendency to bring the troops home, focus on our domestic problems. And that is going to be even more prominent in the coming years. I think it's really important to understand the global interests that the US has, the fact that that will require us to be involved in the world. That doesn't necessarily mean we're indispensable in the sense that we have to go everywhere, and solve every problem at every time. And I, I love Dave's use, use of the analogy of an appetite supressant. but, that, really from a US, US core security and foreign policy interest and in ways that really benefit the American people, the US is going to have to be out there, engaged with the world. To try to address these kinds of threats and to keep keep shipping lanes open and all those sorts of things. And I think there needs to be a much deeper understanding about that as the debate as the debate about should we bring everybody home and turn inward once again, as that debate unfolds. There's a theory called hegemonic stability theory in international relations which suggests that. One state has to set and enforce the rules of the international order in order for the system to work. And, and the theory is of course debated but, but, what is certainly demonstrable over the course of history is that if no one in enforces the rules States take short term decisions that are in that may they think are in their own interest. But that hurt everyone. And, and so the international free trade system which the United States invest huge resources in, in the preserving and protecting. Including an awful lot of the resources of the US Navy and the US Air Force. In fact, makes our economic growth and our economic vitality possible. So we gain a great deal from being the indispensable nation. World trade is conducted in US dollars partly because of the investments we make in international security and, and I believe the United States can make decisions over the next several years that will ensure that it continues to be the provider of security. The provider of, of, the global currency that, that will keep America the most productive and the most powerful country in the world for the next 50 years. And I think that we can do that in ways that are affordable, even given our current economic situation and our current problems with debt and deficits out there. We're, and that's gonna be a big challenge for Secretary Panetta's new defense department is how to thread that needle and be able to deliver maximum military capability with reduced resources. I think it can be done. 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