A new environment, a new paradigm faces United States policy and decision makers. The bipolar world of superpower control and confrontation has been replaced with an unipolar world lead by the United States. A rapid evolution is occurring. A multipolar world is developing composed nation states and non-nation states competing against each other and the United States to promote and protect their vital interests. This new environment confronts this nation with a growing number of unknowns and difficult choices. In such conditions, a logical assumption is that any nation state that can accurately forecast future trends, events, and likely threats will have a distinct advantage. The reality is that there are many pundits proposing a kaleidoscope of possible threats. There is no consistent methodology to identify those nation states and non-nation states that are and will evolve into threats. The lack of a viable forecast results in a fragile and ineffectual grand strategy. History is replete with examples of the penalties to nation states that fail to anticipate and correctly understand a new geopolitical environment. This paper proposes a means to evaluate the environment and the threats it presents. That methodology provides a consistent review of the environment highlighting those nation states and non-nation states posing likely threats to the United States now and in the future. Armed with the forecast results, specific recommendations are made on the development of a grand strategy that places the United States in a favorable position to meet economic, diplomatic, and military threats.

ADA 274021 Approved for public release; Distribution is unlimited. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are those of the student-authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College or any other governmental agency. (References to these studies should include the foregoing statement.)