What has been, is, and should be U.S. grand strategy?

That was the question explored at Rethinking American Grand Strategy, an America250 conference, hosted by the Mershon Center May 29-30, 2026, at the Blackwell Inn and Pfahl Conference Center. Co-organized by Christopher McKnight Nichols, Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies and Professor of History at The Ohio State University, and Andrew Preston, W.L. Lyons Brown Jr. Jefferson Scholars Foundation Distinguished Professor of Diplomacy and Statecraft at the University of Virginia, the conference gathered exceptional scholars and thinkers, eminent figures, and rising stars to rethink American grand strategy through unconventional approaches. 

"This was such an exciting conference,” said Co-organizer Preston. “The experts we brought to Columbus offered a wide range of perspectives on the strategic challenges facing the United States and how Americans can address them, today and in the future."

Rethinking American Grand Strategy focused on broadening the field of Grand Strategy beyond traditional assessments by including cutting-edge work on non-state actors, raw materials, economics, race, gender, and other innovative examinations. In emphasizing new subjects and new approaches, the conference reframed big issues and created new models for understanding the most pressing international issues not only of the past and present, but of the future as well. 

Conference participants engaged with topics and areas not often historicized and understood in grand strategic terms, such as artificial intelligence, materials (e.g. rare earths), and climate change, as well as strategically critical regions (Canada, Central Europe, Southeast Asia, the Arctic) and geographies (space, the seas). The unique perspectives shared will shape the upcoming book Rethinking American Grand Strategy, to be edited by the co-organizers and published by Oxford University Press. 

"It was an intensive and special two days of high-level discussions with some of the foremost thinkers on this subject, both prominent scholars and practitioners as well as rising stars. I was especially delighted that we came away with new frameworks for thinking about the role of democracy and expertise in shaping US grand strategy and for grappling with critical issues ranging from nuclear war and nonproliferation to artificial intelligence, technological innovation, economic policy, and climate change."

Support for this conference was provided by The Stanton Foundation.