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Liberalism as a governing order is barely two centuries old. A response to the great alternatives presented by Europe's political history, it represents a unique synthesis of the ancient and the modern. But globalization has cast a deep shadow across liberalism's future by separating economic activity and the political community of belonging. Thus we are threatened not only by massive impoverishment but also by a political dislocation and a moral rift as well.

On February 24, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel walked into the Pentagon briefing room to deliver a speech unveiling the defense budget of the US for the coming fiscal year. The proposed defense budget for 2015 will consume only 3.4% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product -- down from 4.7% in 2011. This figure is projected to continue declining to a mere 2.3% of GDP by 2024, which would be the lowest level since 1940. Army leadership has stated that a force of 28 active-duty BCTs and 24 Guard BCTs, which would require an active-duty end-strength of 450,000 personnel, is the smallest acceptable force to implement the defense strategy mandated by the nation's political leadership in documents such as the Quadrennial Defense Review. The US Navy is already down to a battle force of 289, of which only 104 are deployed at any one time to cover the entire world. Adapted from the source document.