Graduate School of Public Affairs at the University of ColoradoImagine the 21st century as a three-dimensional chess game. One dimension represents the United States. One dimension represents the world of nation-states. The third dimension—a new one— represents stateless nations. In the 20th century, national security was mostly two-dimensional. The United States and its democratic allies, the white pieces, faced off against other nation-states (imperialist, fascist, or communist), the black pieces. The democratic nations, the white pieces, prevailed because our pieces together were more powerful and, in most cases, we moved them more cleverly. In the 20th century, security was achieved by the clever positioning of powerful forces according to the rules of the traditional two-dimensional game.
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