"Chapter 2: United States" in The Palgrave Geopolitical Atlas: State and Quasi-State Actors in Great Power Competition is part of a comprehensive 54-chapter edited volume that examines global state and quasi-state interactions in the new era of Great Power Competition.

In Chapter 2, Dr. Lynch reviews the status and trajectory of the U.S. as a Great Power, evaluating America's evolving role among the array of states and quasi-states. He explains how, during 2025, the second Trump administration began moving away from the 80-year U.S. strategic tradition of support for a global Pax Americana and toward an America First 2.0 grand strategy that is far less committed to the American-led post-World War II multilateral international order project aimed to assure relative peace and stability through global norms and institutions dedicated to capitalism, free trade, liberal democracy, national self-determination, and respect for individual human rights. A review of American relative strengths vis-à-vis its Global Great Power strategic rivals, China and Russia, indicates that while Washington in 2025 possesses sufficient relative military, politico-diplomatic, and ideological power to achieve the main strategic aims of either America First 2.0 or Pax Americana, America First 2.0’s devaluation of multilateral security commitments and reluctance to underwrite liberal political and free trade norms globally are likely to accelerate future American relative economic decline and leave the US increasingly vulnerable to assertive Chinese military moves, especially in the Western Indo-Pacific region.

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Dr. Thomas F. Lynch III is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Center for Strategy and Military Power at the Institute of National Strategic Studies of the National Defense University.