Contemporary American grand strategy must respond to a variety of changing contexts: the interconnectedness of various international actors, the fragmentation of economic systems, the diminishing ability to control international flows and the transnational threats permeating across borders. The United States, as a leading force of the international community, is now being forced to seriously address an emerging set of global problems. It seems that many areas are so inherently international that not only the American government, but all governments have to pool their vaunted sovereignties because the dangers of uninhibited enterprise are so great in a “global commons.” In these circumstances, the United States should take an active part in establishing the instruments and conditions for effective global governance, although sustaining American engagement in the maintenance of world order is likely to become a more difficult task in the twenty-first century.

The American nation was not only born free and proud, but as Robert Keohane remarked in one of his articles, it was also “born lucky.” Behind the country's rapid economic development stood values that supported risk-taking, entrepreneurship, competitiveness, a sense of mission and pragmatism. Furthermore, national creeds such as the pursuit of happiness and the freedom to shape the course of one's life have strengthened many of these characteristics. The ideational factor of American identity – the nation's sense of uniqueness – has also been a key factor in American political performance and this has determined how the political aims of the country have been defined and pursued.