Watching National Policies Fail

US national security managers have not aligned US power wisely to meet desirable security goals. Their policies have undermined US security, sustainable peace, and international human rights. They have focused on maximizing US military power rather than constraining the role of military power for all states in the international system; maximizing economic gain for the wealthy rather than eliminating poverty and improving economic well-being for all; slowing multilateral initiatives for environmental protection, economic equity, and international economic integration; expressing indifference toward or opposition to multilateral legal and judicial processes aimed at deterring crimes and protecting human rights; and opposing initiatives in international lawmaking, enforcement, and more effective global governance. US policies have ignored possibilities for new constraints on nuclear weapons, drones, and other military technology and refused to strengthen multilateral institutions or to join the International Criminal Court even though these could have helped bridle some dangerous states and non-state actors.