Quote Originally Posted by Dayuhan View Post
There is substantial disagreement over both the nature of American interests and the manner in which they are pursued, and what some see as failure to advance strategic interests may simply be a difference of opinion on what those interests are.
What constitute American interests are subjected to how the US establishment comes to understand the world we all live in. And this is where the problem starts for America (and others).

There are two major questions (among a few) of interest to us that come to define the civilization we are part of:

Do we understand how functional democracies are built and sustained?

Do we understand what causes Muslim radicalism?

Informed observers would concede that we do not know the answers to both.

Of course, if one asks our political scientists, they would tell you that these are complex issues subjected to various causes and influences.

As a physical scientist I would state a fundamental observation that complex causes are unlikely to lead to prolific and repeatable patterns. In other words, there are likely well-defined processes that might shed light on the above two questions.

The bottom line is that poorly understood phenomena of potential strategic significance lead to "difference of opinion" at every level -- from their perceived extent of significance to what to do about them.