Does U.S. Foreign Policy need to shift from Defensive to Offensive in order to maintain world leadership and global stability? How/Why?

I think the terms you mean to use are Reactive versus Active response. The US did switch to Active (pre-emptive offense) policy when the US invaded and occupied Iraq in 2003. The policy was referred to as the Bush Doctrine. At that time it was considered a massive shift in US foreign policy not seen since the Vietnam Era and end of the cold war. The global response was tepid at best, and hostile in many cases; leading countries to take actions which were counter to most US interests. The further destabilization globally resulting from those hostile states beginning to actively counter perceived US aggression and hegemony to their sovereign rights could logically be tied together. Further, this destabilization could be considered exacerbated by a new administration which immediately shifted back to reactive (defensive only) foreign policy and further shows considerable aversion to even taking a reactive response after making threats to do so. Additionally global stability is less dependent on threat or active use of military force than it is on making sure there are stabilizing factors in place to prevent radicalization. Consider the impact of economic stability, a strong middle class, and general perceptions of safety in a nation state. the more those factors are in play along with several others there isnt space to write about the stronger stability becomes and the more likely the local population will police themselves.

Under the Current Presidential Regime the Policies have reduced US to Little more than Playing in a Mud Pit... and the Only way out of it is to restore the US to Its prior Standing and eliminate the Threats to Our and World Stability... or to totally Withdraw from the World Stage and Sit Bak and wait for the Immigrants and Foreign Sources to Fall US from with in...

My 2 Cents:

The United States has become far too locked in a defensive isolationist mindset to effectively address the threats rising in the world today, specifically in the fields of technologically advanced transnational terrorist organizations; cyberespionage, cyber warfare, and international cyber law with regards to the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) (or the lack thereof); robotics, including nanotechnologies, A.I., and weapon applications; and even global economics, and the major impact that the growing human population is having on the resources available on Earth – which bleeds over into the realm of space exploration and planetary resource harvesting. The United States is not leading in any of these, and as the world’s greatest hope for a future where Humanity is free, this is a problem.

With a primarily defensive strategy to combat transnational terrorists, the United States will remain perpetually in a reactive state of terror, unable to ever bring the conflict to a conclusion. At the same time, a heavily military offensive strategy to combat terrorism, without addressing the root problems that are bringing younger generations into the terrorist ideologies, will only exacerbate the problem even further, and result in more widespread terrorism, a higher rate of recruitment, and more advanced allies and partners to help them achieve their objective of destroying America and the West.

Maintaining the same defensive posture with regards to international cyber law has a direct correlation to transnational terrorism as well, since the international laws that do exist regulate the United States in warfare, but do not regulate terrorist organizations. As these organizations become technologically adept, they spread, and gain more knowledge and more technologies along the way, giving them many of the cyber capabilities of a first world Nation, while they remain unaffected by the few international cyber regulations that hinder American cyber operations targeting them.

Japan and China are leading the robotics industry, and they have been for some time. This gives them and whoever they deal with a potentially game-changing combat advantage against American forces. Robotics are advancing weapon systems in remarkable ways, from automation, to guidance systems, and even approaching science fiction type cyborg assemblies that may result in robots replacing boots on the ground. Nanoscience has been adapted for medical purposes to infiltrate the human body, and replicate symptoms, which undoubtedly will transfer into military uses that include biological and chemical warfare on a nano scale. Robotics and nanoscience have also merged to create nanobots, which can be remote controlled, and can kill. Computer science is another field that has been advanced by nanoscience and nanobots, creating Artificial Intelligence based on a series of nanobots working together as a simulated brain. What can America do if faced with a technologically advanced enemy that has robotic, nano, and A.I. superiority, especially if those superiorities have been applied to weapon systems?

With a defensive economic stance in the world, several nations, particularly India, China, and Saudi Arabia, are greatly benefitting from enhanced resource availability in their countries, while the United States economy is nearly shrinking on an annual basis. Farmland in the U.S. is at nearly full capacity for harvesting because of land deterioration problems that arise without crop rotations. There are no underground watersheds in the United States, so non-imported American drinking water is reliant on mountain streams and other small sources of freshwater, with Canada being in control of the largest watershed in North America. Rare earth metals are quickly becoming scarce in the United States, to the point where the international space race to claim the Moon and Mars has become a top priority not just for control over them, but for the resources that are to be mined from within. Uranium, and the volatile radon gas that comes with it, are actually on the economic radar as a good idea for boosting the American economy, instead of remaining too dangerous to mine and not worth the health risks and environmental hazards – a resource that is in abundance on the Moon.

In order to change this course, the United States needs to shift into a primarily offensive mindset in every category, from economics to robotics to transnational terrorism. Offensive trade agreements can reverse the downward economic trend in America, and eventually lead to a united global economic system where food and water become global resources, and prevent Humans from dying of starvation or thirst. Global Federalism in the realm of economics, specifically for Human needs, not wants, can work, much like Federalism in the United States works and prevents one State from starving while another has more food than they need. Offensive international cyber regulations have the capacity to deter and prevent the majority of negative cyber activities that take place, but it would require the United States to also cease those activities, and comply with international cyber laws. Offensive aggressive scientific research and funding in the fields mentioned above, including free market competitiveness and Federal research grants, can unbind the hands of American scientists, and perhaps America can catch up to Japan and China's technologies.

Technological advances are directly related to the international space race as well. The importance of a free nation, not an authoritarian nation, leading the world in space efforts, can provide the opportunity of a peaceful entrance into space – an opportunity that surely will degrade into space warfare if Russia or China gains space superiority first, especially a Lunar base or a Mars colony. And finally, an Aggressive Strategic Offensive Counterintelligence (ASOCI) strategy and mindset for intelligence and military operations, specifically to combat transnational terrorism, is the only way that this rising global conflict can be addressed and brought to conclusion.

The United States Intelligence Community must know their enemy in order to defeat them, and in knowing them, the facts must be acknowledged, and problems addressed – problems like infrastructure, food shortages, water shortages, education, knowledge, and justice. By addressing these problems, and through addressing them, leading a whole people towards freedom, transnational terrorism will lose its foundation. It will lose its generational re-enforcements, and the elements that already exist can be destroyed through overwhelming military force and a global targeted killing coalition, enhanced by improvements to international laws governing targeted killings, in order to end this never-ending war and usher in a free and prosperous Human future.

America needs to shift from Defense to Offense, or freedom will be lost forever.