'Lofflman's sophisticated analysis brings together a wealth of empirical material with a theoretical framework that is persuasive and insightful. As a study of how to study grand strategy, it is unmatched. In the forest of materials on the inner workings of American political culture, it stands tall.' Stuart Croft, University of Warwick Examines the challenges posed to America's global primacy by competing visions of grand strategy This book explores how rivalling discourses of American grand strategy revealed a fractured consensus of geopolitical identity and national security under President Obama. This conflict manifested in divergent elite visions of liberal hegemony, cooperative engagement and unilateral restraint. The book examines in detail the identity conflict within the Washington foreign policy establishment, between elite insiders and outsiders, and how the 'Obama Doctrine' both confirmed a geopolitical vision of American exceptionalism and challenged established notions of US hegemony and world leadership. Georg Löfflmann is Research and Teaching Fellow in International Security in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick. Cover image: (c) Shutterstock.com Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN 978-1-4744-1976-5 Barcode