The New Cold War Is Getting Hotter
Are American national security leaders educated and up to the challenge?
The West faces growing existential threats from totalitarian regimes in Russia, Iran, North Korea, and especially China. With the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the New Cold War is getting hotter, presents the most danger since the fall of the Soviet Union, and is much more complex. Yet one wonders if the United States has the leadership and fortitude to lead the free world in this struggle.
Liberal ideologies have permeated many of our finest universities and taught an entire generation a one-sided view of American history. Slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, foreign adventurism, race tensions, income differences, and other perceived shortcomings are emphasized instead of American success producing the greatest freedom, prosperity, charity, and innovation in history.
This same misguided view of America exists in many foreign affairs graduate schools, where diplomats, military leaders, and intelligence professionals are educated. Instead of focusing on defense of American liberty, they are influenced by a strain of globalist thinking that dismisses American uniqueness and promotes a utopian vision of global governance.
This form of limited education is inadequate, even dangerous. One cannot effectively defend a country one does not understand and love. Those entrusted with the most sensitive security roles must be highly informed but also unapologetically patriotic. They will fail when it matters most if they do not appreciate their American inheritance or, worse yet, don’t believe it is worth defending.
Our national security and foreign affairs graduate schools and military academies must be designed to produce courageous, clear-eyed defenders of American interests, not moral relativists who believe America is just another country in the global community.
Successful foreign policy education starts with a realistic understanding of the global strategic environment, including the history, culture, and geography that help form the ambitions and character of our adversaries. It is dangerous to indulge in “mirror-imaging” their motives and ambitions, which can lead to appeasement and failure to deter aggression.
The Cold War taught us it is possible to win without war, but it requires an integrated strategy utilizing every tool of national power—diplomacy, economic leverage, intelligence, military strength, political strategy, psychological influence, and public diplomacy. In particular, the use of soft power instruments to disarm autocratic leadership and win the hearts and minds of populations is crucial. The effective use of soft power statecraft is not taught and is woefully underestimated in most of the academy.
National security education should also include the study of Judeo-Christian values, Western civilization, American founding principles, and the reasons for American success. National security leaders should know for what they are fighting and why.
Character formation should be a pillar of national security education. Leaders should exhibit absolute integrity, fidelity, courage, humility, selflessness, and prudence. Above all, they must be mission-driven, willing to risk their careers to do the right thing.
Finally, most professors should be scholar-practitioners. Instead of theory, they bring to the classroom real-world experience negotiating with adversaries, commanding troops, gathering and interpreting intelligence, advising presidents and legislators, working in the vital public diplomacy arena, and shaping foreign policy.
A graduate school of foreign affairs with a well-defined mission and the curriculum values outlined here will make a solid contribution to American security. At the Institute of World Politics, where I serve, graduates enjoy a 96% placement rate in their desired career positions, and many serve today in highly sensitive security roles.
In the current threat environment, the United States cannot afford to gamble on leaders driven by ideologies that undermine our sovereignty or weaken our resolve. We need leaders who are committed to defending liberty, have a clear-eyed view of the world, are strategically sound-thinking, and are of high moral character and courage. Anything less invites defeat.
