Ronald Steel and the American Century

Abstract The late Ronald Steel’s Walter Lippmann and the American Century chronicled the era of American ascendence though which Steel himself had lived. Like Lippman a sophisticated realist, he remained critical of US foreign policy, including, as he made clear in the pages of Survival in 2007, the Iraq War, which he speculated would produce an ‘Iraq syndrome’ that would discourage subsequent American military interventions. But the US, he added, would not be weakened ‘so grievously as to retreat into its shell. Such a retreat reflects neither America’s global interests nor the American character.’ Steel expected continuity in strategic affairs. On its face, the Biden administration’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine supports this assessment, but given the genuine possibility that Donald Trump will again be the US president, we really do not know if the American Century will be extended or come to an end.