No liberal warfare or lashout impact
Daniel Deudney 15, Associate Professor of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University, with; Sunil Vaswani; 2015, “First in Freedom: War-Making, American Liberal National Identity and the Liberty Gradient,” Chapter 11 in, Theorizing Foreign Policy in a Globalized World, Palgrave Studies in International Relations Series
Looking ahead, is the American liberal martial combination likely to endure? The answer is probably not. Most importantly, the ability of the US to win wars has declined significantly. Vietnam, Iraq and most likely Afghanistan defy the successful application of American military power. Also, the ‘liberty gradient’ which was once so pronounced has declined with the spread of liberal democracy. The United States is surrounded by democracies, a novel experience. Although this spread of democracy has long been a goal of the United States, the significant realization of this goal leaves the United States somewhat disoriented, and its familiar patterns of mobilization no longer seem so relevant.