5. Strengthen nonmilitary policy instruments: the president should address the growing mismatch between our strategic objectives and the allocation of our national-security resources. If the only instrument we have funded fully is our armed forces, the only option we will have to shape events is costly military intervention. While cuts through sequestration would go too deep, the defense cuts agreed to by the president and Congress—$487 billion over ten years—are necessary and prudent. They could be offset by rebalancing the portfolio of national-security investments, by preserving U.S. military might while enhancing our diplomatic and economic instruments. Greater emphasis is particularly needed in leveraging the private sector and the proliferation of connected technologies on behalf of like-minded groups whose interests coincide with U.S. objectives in advancing international security, human rights and democracy.

The American electorate is rightly focused on economic issues. But amid troubling shifts in the global balance of power and the range of emerging challenges, the candidates also should embrace a substantive debate on the international dimensions.

Zalmay Khalilzad is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 2007 to 2009, he served as U.S. permanent representative to the United Nations. He has also previously served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq, as well as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan and also as special presidential envoy to Afghanistan. He is a member of The National Interest's advisory council.

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