Advancing U.S. Interests in a Troubled World

Given Washington's chronic budget deficit, wasteful spending is intolerable. Even good programs may be unsupportable at levels we would want. But we must also appreciate the many serious challenges we as a Nation, and the U.S. Department of State in particular, faces worldwide. These challenges seem to grow by the day. Iran and North Korea are pursuing nuclear weapons; Russia is gobbling up neighboring Ukraine; we see beheadings, crucifixions, and immolation by ISIS; cartoonists and Jewish shoppers are targeted and killed on Paris streets. Indeed, some days it feels as if the world itself is coming off of its axis. The U.S. faces great challenges. Through it all, though, we must work together to ensure that America maintains its positive and essential role in the world.