Obama Fighting a 2-Front War, Like Rome

Obama Fighting a 2-Front War, Like Rome

For many years, the world’s greatest power faced two grave external threats: from irregular groups of non-state actors and from large, newly empowered, rising states that wanted to displace it. Massive amounts of national treasure were expended on military operations ranging from tactical raids to full-scale war. Negotiation alternated with conflict, thousands of troops were deployed permanently abroad and allied states were built up as a buffer against both threats. But in the end all this wasn’t enough: National exhaustion and a breakdown of political legitimacy led to the eventual collapse of the state. Why? Because it never fully realized that its security crisis was ultimately as much a domestic issue—a question of getting its politics in order—as it was an external one.

The power described above is not 21st century America, but rather ancient Rome. And today, nearly a decade and aor half after the terror attacks of 9/11, the United States appears to be entering an environment analogous to the one in which Rome found itself. On the one hand, terrorism is more dangerous today than it was in 2001, with the Islamist non-state actors who practice it metastasizing around the Middle East and North Africa. On the other hand, great-power competition has re-emerged with the disruptive actions of Russia in Europe and China in East Asia, and a possibly a nuclear Iran in the Middle East. Just like Rome, America faces a two-front conflict to preserve its power and prestige—and as with Rome, these threats are not going away. They will last at least a generation, and most likely more.

 

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