The Princeton Project on National Security has just released a major study on U.S. foreign policy for the 21st century. The authors of the report, Anne-Marie Slaughter and G. John Ikenberry, who also directed the project, spoke yesterday on Capitol Hill, along with Senators Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel, and nearly two dozen other commentators and speakers.

I was honored to have contributed in a very small way to the work of the Princeton Project. I am particularly grateful to Harold Feiveson, Chris Chyba and David Victor, the co-chairs of the working group on relative threat assessment, who invited me to contribute a working paper for the group (.pdf available here).

However, leaving aside my biases, I believe that anyone who cares enough about foreign policy to read this blog should read the Princeton Project’s final report. I also believe that Across the Aisle is a particularly appropriate forum for an in-depth discussion of the report going forward. Many others who participated in the project have their own blogs. (For example, TPM Cafe’s America Abroad, Daniel Drezner’s eponymous blog, and CAP/Century Foundation’s Democracy Arsenal) But this PSA blog is unique in that it brings together views from across the political spectrum. The authors clearly intended that the project report would appeal to a bipartisan audience. That Anthony Lake, one of the honorary co-chairs of the Princeton Project (with George Shultz), happens also to be on PSA’s advisory board doesn’t hurt.

In the introductory chapter of the report, Dean Slaughter and Professor Ikenberry close with three urgent questions, and an appeal to their readers:

In this world, what does the United States seek — for all Americans, and for all human beings? How do we define our objectives, and what kind of strategy will we need to achieve those objectives in the 21st century? What principles will serve as our anchor in the coming decades, and what policies will guide us? The answers to these questions must ultimately be the subject of sustained national debate. This report seeks to begin it.

Over the next few weeks, I intend to weigh in on aspects of the report that I find particularly interesting, but I expect my fellow bloggers to do the same, and I welcome many more comments from readers. So, do your homework. Read the report (.pdf). And let’s get a conversation started.

Related posts:

1. U.S. Standing in the World
2. Haass and Wars of Choice
3. The Freedom Agenda R.I.P.? Part IV
4. The Freedom Agenda R.I.P.? Part III
5. The Freedom Agenda R.I.P.? Part II