Last week, while I was busy writing about
two fascinating scenarios for the future of U.S. influence, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was delivering the latest in a long line of brilliant speeches, this time in Chicago. In it, he nailed down exactly the kinds of concrete changes that must happen in order to retool the institutions of American foreign policy for the radical challenges of the next two decades.
The speech underscored that, even as Gates emerged victorious this week from a Washington budget battle, there's a more massive challenge looming. ...