It's not clear to me that a long-term strategy is possible in heterogeneous democracies. The back-and-forth swings in power between highly opposed ideological groups disincentives long-term planning and big thinking.<p>Why plan for the next 100 years of climate change when the next guy voted in will throw your work out the window and claim it's a conspiracy?
Perhaps America still views itself as needing the world's most powerful military indefinitely. We continue to push the American capitalistic model everywhere possible. We may have the most diversified economy on the planet. In other words, we want the status quo extended.<p>Maybe this lack of planning stems from our faith in markets vs central planning.
I think the author does not understand capitalism. A fundamental aspect of what the US is about is Liberty.<p>That means that people are free to pursue whatever they want. If they change their minds, that's part of the system. People generate demand, and people work to meet supply.<p>The concept of a plan for production to meet demand is the concept that belongs to a planned economy (e.g. communist or fascist) government where production is controlled (or at least managed) by a government bureaucracy.<p>So not, we do not have a "strategic plan". And hopefully we never will.
There are probably many strategic objectives that do not rely upon political / economic models, e.g. maintain a basic level of self-sufficiency in agriculture.