That this is a momentous time is reflected in the fact that the country’s current grand strategy has guided its foreign relations for more than 70 years.

REALISM AND REFORM

Womanhood Redefined Natasha Vargas-Cooper For those who are unfamiliar with the linguistic acrobatics of political speech on college campuses these days, Ensler’s assertion that she never “defined a woman as a person with a vagina” may seem confounding, as most people would agree that having a vagina is a fundamental aspect of womanhood. Nevertheless, we find ourselves at a moment in history when defining a woman as a person with a vagina is considered beyond the pale. The Big Forces of History Christopher Layne That this is a momentous time is reflected in the fact that the country’s current grand strategy has guided its foreign relations for more than 70 years. Even as World War II gripped the globe, U.S. policy planners already were formulating U.S. postwar policy objectives. Washington’s overriding goal was to ensure that the United States enjoyed a preponderance of power in the postwar world; that is, the U.S. sought an imbalance of power in its favor. American policymakers intended to use U.S. dominance to construct a stable international order—that so-called Pax Americana—that would ensure peace and prosperity. The prevailing distribution of military and economic power in the international system was propitious. Indeed, 1945 was America’s first unipolar moment. The United States alone accounted for half of the world’s manufacturing output, possessed two-thirds of the world’s gold and foreign-exchange reserves, enjoyed a capacity to project more power more widely than any other nation; and, of course, held a crucial monopoly on atomic weapons. The United States leveraged these instruments of overwhelming power to build the military, economic, and institutional architecture of Pax Americana. Is the Left Playing With  Fire? Patrick J. Buchanan To those who lived through that era that tore us apart in the ’60s and ’70s, it is starting to look like “déjà vu all over again.” And as Adlai Stevenson, Bobby Kennedy, and Hubert Humphrey did then, Democrats today like Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi are pandering to the hell-raisers, hoping to ride their energy to victory. Democrats would do well to recall what happened the last time they rode the tiger of social revolution. Is President Trump Headed  for a War With China? Rajan Menon A military clash between Trump-led America and a China led by President Xi Jinping? Understanding how it might happen requires a brief detour to the place where it’s most likely to occur: the South China Sea. Our first task: to understand China’s position on that body of water and the islands it contains, as well as the nature of Beijing’s military projects there. So brace yourself for some necessary detail.

Moscow Sees Its Coldest  Christmas in 120 Years Jon Basil Utley Moscow has had a record-busting winter, including the coldest Christmas in 120 years according to Russian reports. Yet there is nothing on CNN. Poland and much of Eastern Europe also are having a record cold winter. It is not reported. Also in the Southern Hemisphere were record cold winters in 2016 and cool following summers in Perth, Australia and New Zealand, which had the coldest winter in a hundred years. Similarly, in 2016 Brazil had the coldest winter in 22 years.