Deep Engagement Case Study

Deep engagement provides significant benefits to the national interest of the United States both in terms of security and economic stability/gain. However, through the extent of the US forward deployment pattern which constitutes the physical representation of these commitments, the threat of temptation leading to a distortion of interests is an important potential cost . It is clear that the United States has often sought to do more on the world stage than merely sustain deep engagement. Democracy promotion is a clear example. But the commitment to such activities, the promotion of liberal values, varies between presidencies and as such cannot be counted among the core of deep engagement, it is not a constant objective . That is they are referred to as, “deep engagement plus.” These extend beyond the core of the grand strategy and, in my view, they represent the shadow of …show more content…
Military force is the ultimate tool of the state, the one whose use can provide the greatest strategic gains or the greatest losses. Interventions that go beyond the point of maintaining the stability of the system, i.e. following the core objectives of deep engagement. The textbook case of this is the Iraq War of 2003. Gregory Gause underscores this, stating that invasion represented a departure from norms. Washington went from merely wanting to maintain its hegemony to protect oil interests. Stability was previously all important. However, the invasion devalued this very stability throwing the region into chaos through an attempt to reshape the region in America’s image . Of all the conflicts since 1990(the end of the Cold War) the Iraq war represented 67% of all casualties and 64% of all budget costs in a war that only made the region and the United States worse off. The United States may have primacy, but there is no better way to waste it than interventions without a clear aim to further grand strategic objectives