Let me start by quoting Robert Jervis: “Countries like the United States which are large, powerful, and speak out on most issues with enormous volume, if not with enormous clarity, can influence others, definition of reality.”1199413 More than just voice, as the only superpower today, the United States plays a prominent, if not dominant, role in shaping the international structure today: what the United States is doing, plans to do, or even is rumored to do, exerts profound influence on the international system.

American scholars were the first to recognize the so-called “security dilemma”. Briefly, the theory of “security dilemma” asserts that one state’s pursuit of security often results in other states‘insecurity, and in turn, other states’reaction to this new insecurity will lead to the first state’s insecurity. The result is that each state becomes less secure because each wants to be secure alone. To escape from this “security dilemma”, states must restrain their urge for absolute security. Thus, the theory argues that security among nations cannot be achieved by single-minded pursuit of self-interest, it can only be obtained by dynamic interactions among nations.

Unfortunately, we have not seen American security policy reflecting this American wisdom. In fact, as the most secure state in the world today, the United States behaves as if its security is the most threatened.1199414

This U. S. behavior has potentially unsettling consequences. In this paper, I will touch on three issues, each with impact at a different level: global, regional, and country-specific.