The West is slowly losing the contest for pre-eminence in the emerging international order. Brexit is just one manifestation of the crisis of confidence enveloping liberal democracies beset by a rising tide of dissent, self-doubt, identity politics and a loss of trust in the foundational institutions of the post-World War II order. But the steady erosion of US military capabilities is of even greater concern because the West’s traditional advantage in hard power has underpinned these institutions and their guiding norms. If we lose our military edge, what will prevent illiberal adversaries from undermining our societies and taking what they want by stealth or force?
By the end of the 1980s, Ronald Reagan had transformed the US military into a technologically superior force by exhausting Moscow in an arms race it could never win, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union. But in the years that followed, the US frittered…