The United States’ cultural obsession with winning precludes an effective grand strategy. Since 1945, and increasingly since the end of the Cold War, American military and economic dominance has been so great this fixation was unimportant. However, with China’s rise, America no longer has this luxury and needs a bona fide grand strategy. Americans’ distaste for the sporting tie has fostered a national culture whose tendrils have infested foreign policy decision making. Absent a dominant global military position, the U.S. must learn to prioritize and take risk, important elements of strategy identified in Jacqueline Whitt’s recent article, “In Defense of a Strategy of Not-Losing.”[1] This article argues America’s fascination with winning, birthed through the character of national sports, constrains strategic options.[2] The 2018 National Defense Strategy’s advocacy for strategic predictability is oxymoronic: strategy must not be predictable. The United States must ignore its natural Jominian tendencies to attack enemy strength and instead consider an indirect approach, attacking enemy weakness.[3] In an age of emerging multi-polarity, America cannot countenance predictability and must adopt a more nuanced approach or fade as other hegemons have throughout time.
