But I fear that other, larger powers, would become bolder as well, not necessarily or only by posing security challenges, but by complicating our leadership on international questions from proliferation control to economic crises. Friend and foe alike perceive a gap between a great power's rhetoric and its actions as weakness. Our enemies, of course, will soon test our resolve in other ways to determine how far they can exploit our debility. Our friends will seek new arrangements to compensate for what they perceive as our unreliability. Thus, whether we had a strategic interest in the Balkans or not we acquired one the moment we threatened force.
Credibility is a strategic asset of the highest order, and well worth fighting to maintain.
Second, I fear that NATO, the most successful alliance in history, would not survive another decade much less another half century should we fail to impose our will on an inferior but dangerous European power. Alliances are not ends in themselves. They are formed to protect our interests. We shouldn't neglect our interests to form alliances. Flush with success but unable to modernize its mission, NATO is suffering an identity crisis, a crisis that has sparked three troubling developments.