Happy Birthday, USA

Salutations from foreign policy experts on America's 250th

Jul 03, 2026

On this occasion of the 250th birthday of the United States, Blue Blaze gathered some friends and asked them their thoughts and advice for the country.

What’s Right with America

Dan Reiter (Emory University)

Happy 250th birthday, America! My birthday wish for America on the occasion of its quarter-millennium marker is this: remember your virtues and strengths. It’s far too easy to bemoan everything America is doing wrong these days, its missteps, shortcomings, and failures. Let’s keep in mind everything we have going for us.

America is dynamic and optimistic. It sometimes feels like we are stuck in a downward rut we will never get out of. But remember that we have bounced back from challenging times in the past, the Civil War, the World Wars, the Vietnam/Watergate/oil crisis/recessionary mess of the 1970s, the 9/11 attacks, Covid, and others. We will again shake off challenges and get back on track.

Also remember that especially from a foreign policy perspective, we have so much going for us. Our borders remain secure, our military is powerful, our economy is robust and growing, and most of the formal structures that maintain American global influence remain intact. Our net dependence on foreign oil is historically low. The terror threat is more manageable than since the 1980s. One of our principal adversaries, Russia, is fighting the most self-destructive war waged by a great power since World War II. North Korea is staying in its cage. Instability-generating civil wars in Syria and Iraq have ended. It’s been twenty years since any state joined the nuclear club.

Many bemoan America’s abandonment of its core foreign policy values: advancing democracy and human rights, supporting international cooperation to address global challenges, welcoming immigrants, and standing by allies. But these are values that we can and will support again. The world has deeply regretted America’s retreat, and it cannot wait for us to reverse course and embrace these values anew.

We of course should not look past our problems, missteps, and challenges. But we should also not allow pessimism to become crippling, or to lose the grander perspective that the current moment is just that: a moment within a very long era of American nationhood.

Take inspiration in what President Bill Clinton declared in his first State of the Union address, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

Happy birthday, America! Here’s to the next 250 years!

Act your Age

Jeremy Shapiro (European Council on Foreign Relations & Blue Blaze)

So, America, you wily bitch, you’re finally 250. And what a 250 years it has been. The last quarter millennium has made you the richest, most powerful , and most successful nation on Earth. You sent a man to the moon, won a bunch of wars, and invented the airplane, baseball, and online dating. You have everything you ever dreamed of in your heady revolutionary youth, from a transcontinental land mass to ample flush toilets.

And yet you are not happy. You complain bitterly that you’re not rich enough and frequently lash out against smaller countries for little or no reason. Let’s face it: you have anger issues.

It’s time to settle down a bit, embrace your advanced age and appreciate what fortune has given you. Have you considered yoga? Or maybe universal health care?

If You Like the Fourth of July, Thank a Frenchman

Joshua Rovner (American University)

Revolutionary Americans had a lot of big ideas about philosophy and government. They knew less about how to win a war. The first two years of fighting were characterized by poverty and retreat, and George Washington’s ramshackle army struggled to remain a coherent fighting force. At this time it was not clear how such a force could overcome the larger, wealthier, and more professional British army. Indeed, some of Washington’s lieutenants thought his strategy was a disaster in the making. Given the overwhelming imbalance of power, they pushed to transform a conventional conflict into a guerilla war. American prospects were dim.

All of this changed, of course, when France joined the war against Great Britain. The alliance with France meant a critical infusion of men and material. Suddenly the Americans could fight on something like level terms. The arrival of the French army, and the combined navies of Bourbon France and Spain, meant the end of lopsided British military dominance. “If you like the Fourth of July,” a colleague once told me, “thank a Frenchman.”

But France did much more than provide guns and ships. French strategy was excellent. French military leaders worked well with their American counterparts, accepting a subordinate position in key decisions about the war. In so doing they strengthened the prestige of the Continental Army and the nascent United States. Meanwhile, French diplomats brought along Spain and Holland, despite real reservations in both countries. These moves enabled extraordinary joint and combined efforts later in the war, culminating with the surrender of British forces at Yorktown.

French efforts didn’t come cheap, however, and the cost of fighting on the Americans’ behalf dramatically worsened France’s debt burden. The monarchy did not have the financial tools that might have helped manage the debt, and economic turmoil fueled a domestic political crisis leading to revolution. France had fought well to achieve victory, only to become extremely insecure.

What can we learn from this story? One lesson is that lethality is no substitute for strategy. Although the war was quite violent, France’s wartime triumph as not a product of its superior killing power. Instead, French strategy self-consciously married diplomacy and force. A second lesson is that strategy is not the same as grand strategy. Sometimes, in fact, these concepts can work at cross-purposes. France’s theory of victory undermined its postwar theory of security.

Today’s US military is as lethal as any in human history. Yet strategic success remains elusive, as the Iran War reminds us. And warfighting prowess, however impressive, may lead to hollow victories if it is disconnected from a broader approach to national security. Enjoy the fireworks on the fourth, but spare a thought for what comes the day after.

To America at 250

Tomohiko Taniguchi (University of Tsukuba, Japan)

Two hundred and fifty years ago, a remarkable experiment began on the eastern shore of a vast continent. It was founded on an audacious proposition: that human beings, equal in dignity, could govern themselves and secure liberty under the rule of law.

The experiment has never been perfect. It has known civil war, injustice, economic hardship and moments of self-doubt. Yet time and again, America has shown an extraordinary capacity for self-correction and renewal. That may well be the secret of its greatness.

For those of us in Japan, America has been more than a country across the Pacific. It has been an ally, a source of inspiration and, at times, a mirror in which we have reflected upon ourselves. The international order that America helped build after the Second World War brought unprecedented prosperity and freedom to millions, including my own countrymen. The principles of free trade, open seas and constitutional government owe much to American leadership and sacrifice.

Yet anniversaries are occasions not only for celebration but also for reflection. The world still needs an America that remains confident without being complacent, powerful without being overbearing and patriotic without turning inward. The world still needs an America that understands that its greatest strength has never rested solely on its military or economic might, but also on its ability to inspire hope and attract goodwill.

At two hundred and fifty, America is still young by the standards of civilization. May it continue to renew itself and remain faithful to the ideals that animated its founding. May it remain not only a great power, but also a good power.

From one of America’s oldest and most steadfast friends across the Pacific, I offer heartfelt congratulations and the hope that the next chapter of the American experiment will prove as consequential and as inspiring as the first.

Beware the Monsters

Jennifer Lind (Dartmouth & Blue Blaze)

At its founding and for more than a century beyond, the United States pursued a foreign policy that sought friendly political and economic relations with other countries — relations aimed at supporting the strength of the U.S. economy, polity, and people. This foreign policy was restrained —in the words of John Quincy Adams, mindful to “go not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” The notion that the United States would build a massive military and wield it in service of an expansive global agenda had no basis in our country’s early strategic culture.

As the United States grew in power, many Americans still believed in that posture, but other people argued for moving beyond it. They argued compellingly that America’s ideas held great promise for the world—that American leadership could make the world a better place. To get around the mistrust of foreign adventures that were deeply rooted in the psyche of the American people, advocates of U.S. global ambitions sought to change public opinion: to create institutions that supported a more assertive foreign policy posture.

This ambitious America did indeed do much good in the world. Its economic leadership and the shelter provided by its military enabled countries to lift themselves out of poverty, and protected countries that may otherwise have fallen to authoritarian aggression.

Today, the choice before the United States is not (as many frame it) between internationalism and isolationism. America has always been a highly engaged member of the global community and should continue to be so. But over time American leaders decided that “internationalism” should include interfering in countries’ domestic politics, dominating (rather than just particpating in) alliances, assassinating foreign leaders, pursuing nation-building experiments, and bearing staggering military budgets. In the post-Cold War era, this highly militarized internationalism has served the United States poorly: leading to costly failures of nation-building in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, exhausting the American people, and contributing to soaring defense spending and executive overreach.

Today the United States, marking its 250th anniversary, confronts dramatic changes in international politics. As Americans contemplate how they want to respond, they should remember that in our nation’s early history we have an alternative to the aggressive posture that the U.S. has pursued for the past few decades. A less militarized version of internationalism offers a better alternative to the near-constant warmaking that has become the norm in U.S. foreign policy. A more peaceful, but still engaged, internationalism enables the country to be more supportive of her own people, as well as more true to American values.

What’s your birthday wish to America?