This book is a neoconservative argument for a U.S. foreign policy that is engaged, proactive, interventionist, and expensive. Muravchik posits that there is no authority higher than America,and pushes for America to accept the role of world leader rather than wallow in "peacetime aloofness," unwilling to give up security for the reins of power.

Joshua Muravchik is a resident scholar at AEI.