In a piece I am preparing for work I lay out five points that I am currently labeling as "Strategic Assertions" (open to good ideas for a better heading). The first assertion could probably be informally called "relax and breathe":

1. The U.S. is incredibly secure and stable. No other nation enjoys the strong geo-strategic and geo-political reality enjoyed by the U.S., and this reality is not challenged in any existential way. The U.S. possesses global key terrain, is rich in resources of every nature and secure from invasion. The nature of the U.S populace and construct and evolution of our political systems are uniquely suited to the populace-empowered environment emerging on the back of rapid technological advances. While these advances do empower new challengers difficult for states to control, such control is not necessary to guard our future security. It is critical to the security of the nation to recognize while yes, the U.S. has troops in combat; the U.S. absolutely is not a nation at war. To assert a “war” status for every combat action creates unnecessary strategic risks for our nation and limits far more options than it enables. Freeing senior leaders from the strategic burden of “winning” the current fight empowers them to embrace more effective approaches across the span of domestic and foreign policy designed to secure our vital interests into the future.

More than "running an Empire" the US is working to maintain its national interests as it has come to define them, in a manner it has grown accustomed to applying. As the environment has evolved there have emerged new challengers that are not well addressed by the old tools of statecraft, and that make the degree of certainty we have grown used to in recent years increasingly difficult to sustain at a reasonable cost. This first assertion is to simply offer a reminder that in the big scheme of things we are sitting pretty damn good.