I spent the first half of my professional life as a soldier -- a bona fide Cold Warrior.  

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Greetings,

I spent the first half of my professional life as a soldier -- a bona fide Cold Warrior. I believed in the cause, which I viewed as essential to our nation’s safety and security. Yet I also considered the Cold War to be an emergency. We did what we did in the world -- stationing troops in Europe, maintaining a sprawling network of bases abroad, fighting wars in Korea and Vietnam, organizing and maintaining a huge national security establishment -- because we had to. Our well being depended on it.

If and when that emergency ended, we’d have the chance to once more become a normal nation. So at least I vaguely expected.
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Yet when the end of the Cold War did end, American ambitions mushroomed. The United States was now the “sole superpower.” It had become history’s “indispensable nation.” Washington’s willingness to use force, even in situations of negligible relevance to the national interest, became pronounced. I found myself at first disturbed and then after 9/11 appalled by the direction of U.S. policy and by the tenor of the debate, especially in policy circles. Successive administrations and both political parties succumbed to militarism.

I am under no illusion about the difficulty involved in breaking the lockhold of an establishment committed to an obsolete (not to say self-serving) conception of so-called global leadership.

But mounting such a challenge has become an imperative. Now is the moment to act. In Washington, something akin to complete strategic disarray prevails. The need for sober analysis, grounded in reality, and informed by history has never been greater.

That is why I joined with my colleagues to establish the Quincy Institute.

Our task is not an easy one. It will take years to achieve. But we have the right team in place. We have an unprecedented political opening in Washington. And we have YOU ([link removed]) .

With your support, we will move US foreign policy away from endless wars and towards a strategy centered on diplomacy and military restraint.

That is why I hope you will make a tax-deductible gift ([link removed]) to the Quincy Institute and support this important cause.

Together, we can restore prudence, pragmatism, and common sense as a foundation for U.S. foreign policy.

Sincerely,

Andrew Bacevich,
President

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