Case Study: Challenge and Response

This paper is designed for you to use your critical thinking skills evaluating a potential future international relations environment, discuss/describe how national interests can be threatened or challenged, and determine how states can utilize instruments of national power to respond to these threats and challenges in this plausible future scenario. Utilize the “Alternative World” scenario that you discussed in the Week One Discussion, “Future Worlds,” and analyze/evaluate this scenario in your paper.

Make sure you do not just restate your discussion post from Week One. If you do choose to use your discussion post, reference yourself as the author and use the following format:
Student, J. (2013). Fusion [Online forum comment]. Department of Political Science, Ashford University, Clinton, IA. Retrieved from http://classroom.ashford.edu/
To cite a specific quote from your discussion post, you would use the following in-text citation format:
(Author’s Last Name, year, paragraph #). If Jane Student were to take a direct quote from that same discussion post, the citations would look like this: (Student, 2013, para. 2).
The future scenarios from Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds include:
Stalled Engines: A scenario in which the U.S. and Europe turn inward and globalization stalls.
Fusion: A world in which the U.S. and China cooperate, leading to worldwide cooperation on global challenges.
Gini-Out-of-the-Bottle: A world in which economic inequalities dominate.
Nonstate World: A scenario in which nonstate actors take the lead in solving global challenges.
The U.S. government traditionally uses the National Security Strategy (NSS) to elucidate the core national security interests and objectives of our nation. Identify and discuss three critical national interests illuminated in the 2010 NSS that would be threatened or challenged in the “alternative world” you selected. Next, explain what tools (i.e., political, social/cultural, geographic/economic) and military elements of power, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGO), or others, you would use to respond the potential future threats or challenges. Finally, prioritize the threats and challenges and recommend which threat or challenge should be addressed first, second, and, if needed, third. Provide the rationale behind your recommended priorities.

When writing your paper, make sure to consider what you learned in the simulation, You Are a Strategic Analyst. When writing your recommendations, reflect upon the lessons you learned while working your way through this simulation.

Your paper should be organized into five sections:
Introduction and Thesis.
Three threats or challenges to United States’ interests.
The United States’ responses to identified threats or challenges.
Recommended priorities.
Conclusion.
The paper must be four to five pages in length (excluding title and reference pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. You must include at least three scholarly sources, which may include your course text and the Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds report. Cite your sources within the text of your paper and on the reference page. For information regarding APA, including samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar