All Measures Short of War: The Contest for the 21st Century and the Future of American Power

Two decades after the Cold War, the world saw unprecedented cooperation among its major powers as leaders converged on a model of liberal international order. Now, power competition is back and the liberal order is in jeopardy, with Russia and China becoming increasingly revisionist and the Middle East unraveling. Thomas J. Wright, in All Measures Short of War (Yale University Press), explains how major powers will compete fiercely while trying to avoid war and outlines an American strategy of Responsible Competition to navigate these challenges. Wright is a senior researcher at the Princeton Project on National Security.

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April 2026

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