America! Our confidence, our tailwind, our competitive advantage, and how we win the new Cold War
Daniel Cheriot, American Purpose: Can America Regain Its Self-Confidence?
Vigorously confident leadership is necessary; however, asking a complex nation like the United States to just sit around until a new Abraham Lincoln or Franklin Roosevelt shows up is not exactly a solution. The United States is neither economically weak nor militarily or diplomatically helpless. It remains the world’s strongest nation in almost all respects. Regaining its sense of self-worth would work wonders toward putting the world on notice that America is not going to collapse or withdraw into hapless passivity.
James Pethokoukis, Faster, Please!
Connor O’Brien & Adam Ozimek, Economic Innovation Group: “Foreign-born skilled workers play a critical role in strategically significant industries”
For the U.S., there is a tremendous opportunity to more fully reap the benefits of our competitive advantage. While the U.S. may not have the lowest labor costs or most flexible regulatory or permitting regimes in strategic industries, it remains the most desired destination for top talent around the world. At the same time, our ability to integrate the best and brightest into our companies, labs, and research centers is without parallel.
Full report here.
Matt Yglesias, Slow Boring: The economics of the New Cold War
Right now, American politics is being torn apart by the edge case question of how to deal with floods of people making asylum claims. But the historical foundation of America’s emergence as a great power was the deliberate cultivation of a large population via legal immigration.
Stephen Kotkin, Foreign Affairs: On how America wins the new cold war:
You have to have a positive story; you have to be compelling. You have to be something that other people want to join voluntarily. It’s about attraction. It’s about the other side knowing that you’re more popular than they are. That others want to join you rather than them; that they need coercion for their sphere of influence whereas your sphere of influence is voluntary, non-hierarchical, open, and mutual obligatory because of your treaty negotiations… and so you need to make yourself something that others want to emulate and join.