A Balance of Titans

Peace and Liberty in the New Multipolar World

Ivan Eland

• Publisher: Independent Institute
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• eBook ISBN:
  9781598134353
• Subtopic: Diplomacy & Treaties
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The U.S. is 16% of the world GDP... but 40% of world military spending.

America's defense strategy is broken, with bloated budgets, endless wars, and nothing to show for it. Unfortunately, the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex is working as designed. Corruption, waste, and catastrophic hubris are out of control, and the result has been a perilous and expensive defense strategy.

If we don’t change course now, the cost won’t just be measured in dollars, but in lives and liberties.

Enter Ivan Eland, director of Independent Institute’s Center on Peace & Liberty and acclaimed foreign policy expert. A Balance of Titans: Peace and Liberty in the New Multipolar World lays out a much-needed, rational, strategy-first approach to national security, one that protects vital interests without bankrupting the nation, dragging America into endless wars, or recklessly toppling regimes around the world.

Eland’s bold and pragmatic theory of Independent Internationalism draws inspiration from FDR’s visionary Four Policemen concept. His updated version is both principled and pragmatic, perfectly tailored to the present day, and champions diplomacy and restraint over empire and endless war. The US, once the lone superpower, now shares the global stage with other major powers: the EU, UK, Russia, China, India, and Japan. Each great power, Eland urges, must secure its own region while collaborating on shared global concerns.

Far from being a pacifist retreat, Eland’s vision is the brilliant and strategic recalibration our rapidly changing world needs. Eland argues that instead of risking catastrophic conflict by policing the globe, America must lead the way in building a peaceful, regionally balanced international order—before it’s too late.

With a proposed budget that slashes military spending by more than 40 percent, rare scholarly rigor, and a comprehensive view of America’s ever-worsening relationship with Latin America, A Balance of Titans is a must-read for all Americans who believe in a smarter, saner path to American security in a multipolar world.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Introduction: US Security Policy Is (Really) Outdated
• Chapter 1: Relearning the Basics
• Chapter 2: Why Defense Spending Is So Wasteful
• Chapter 3: Which Security Interests Are Actually Vital?
• Chapter 4: The Case for Independent Internationalism
• Chapter 5: What Forces Do We Really Need?
• Chapter 6: And Which Weapons?
• Chapter 7: We’d Save How Much?
• Conclusion: A Humbler, Safer Foreign Policy
• About the Author
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright