Dramatic events such as the end of the Cold War, the turn of the century, and now a new presidency offer opportunities for the United States to reconsider its national security policy. [1] The notion that the focus should be limited to defending against an emerging peer competitor or rogue state is flawed, however, and current analyses of emerging threats are generally too narrowly defined. Internal regional strife, not power-projecting challengers to US primacy, will likely spark the crises of the 21st century for which US strategy must be prepared. A tidal wave of public outcry over the deteriorating state of regional economies and the global environment is rushing toward the shores of the world's most powerful nations. In an era in which there are few imminent threats to US security, government as well as corporate leaders praise the superpower status of our nation. In such times it is not surprising that labor and environmental reform issues are often placed on the back burner. Nevertheless, these are the issues that will take center stage in the coming decades. From its current position of vast global power, the United States can either choose to meet this challenge head on, or be overcome by it. My intent is not to dismiss the current theories of strategy, but rather to add to Four such strategies (and many variations on these) compete for relevancy in the current public debate: neo-isolationism, selective engagement, cooperative security, and primacy. [2] The implications of each are normally outlined in a traditional analysis of foreign affairs in which there exists a constant competition for power between states. Although this tradition continues, the real danger the world now faces stem[s] not from conflicts between countries but from conflicts within them. [3] Such internal strife over distribution of wealth, labor inequality, scarcity of resources, and declining environmental conditions will spill over into neighboring states, creating chaos. The new grand strategy of the United States, therefore, needs to respond to regional internal weaknesses, not to the external strengths of perceived rogue and competitor states. The Economic Challenge Current statistics place the population of the 42 so-called Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) at 700 million. This number is expected to rise to 1.5 billion by 2030. [4] These are the people currently isolated by extreme poverty, those failed by their governments and the international system. Because of the economic plight of these people, death by disease is reaching proportions not seen since the plagues of Europe. Some statistics place the annual number of malaria-related deaths at 2.5 million. Disease is so heavily concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa that nobody bothers to keep accurate records of clinical cases or death. [5] The economic burden of the AIDS epidemic on developing nations is even more worrisome. Two-thirds of the world's 33 million individuals infected with the virus are sub-Saharan Africans, according to a 1998 UN estimate. [6] The medical costs associated with stabilizing the situation cannot be absorbed solely by the states most affected. An international effort is required to prevent the flames of civil war that will surely ignite if the suffering and deaths of millions of people cannot be avoided. Compounding the issues of economic disparity is the global movement against labor repression. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) turned 50 years old in 1998. Along with it, labor rights activists celebrated another key document of their cause: Convention Number 87 of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Both documents delineate what can be referred to as internationally recognized worker rights, including the right to healthy working conditions, equal pay, acknowledgement of human dignity, and the right to form and join trade unions. [7] Despite the sweeping declarations of these international works, over half the world's population lives in countries that have not ratified ILO Convention Number 87 (including China, India, and the United States), and little impetus exists to enforce the labor standards proposed. …