Please join us for a lectue with Nikolas K. Gvosdev, Professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. 

The 2024 presidential election is taking place in the midst of an inflection point in world affairs where the United States remains the dominant power in the international system--but global affairs are showing more signs of multipolarity, but also nonpolarity. Competition between major states—rather than coordination by a hyperpower—is becoming the defining feature of the mid-twenty-first century. This movement is aided and abetted by technological shifts that remove gatekeepers and central nodes and change the calculus for both compellence and deterrence.

Thus, the rules of the international system are changing at the same time that the tools available to both state and non-state actors are evolving. Voters in this election are being given a choice between very different visions of where, when, and under what conditions the United States ought to be involved. Depending on how the presidential elections are determined, and the balance of power within the Congress, what are possible U.S. foreign policy futures?