Pierre Rehov
When US President Ronald Reagan revived the phrase "shining city on a hill," he did so not as a marketing flourish but as a governing ethic: the United States would deter evil by projecting confidence, prosperity and moral clarity.
His message blended optimism with hard power — lower taxes and deregulation to spur growth, rebuilding the military to restore deterrence, and an unapologetic defense of Western civilization. The mix resonated because it tied virtue to results: fewer hostages, a stronger dollar, and an adversary in Moscow forced onto its back foot. This fusion of ideals and outcomes gave the GOP a compass that pointed true north.
Reagan called it "peace through strength." The logic was simple: credible power restrains predators, and free economies outrun "planned" ones. That worldview, articulated in the 1980s and vindicated by the collapse of the Soviet bloc, set a high bar for a new statecraft. This new statecraft, begun by Reagan, was neither isolationist nor utopian. It was positive and pragmatic, based on whatever might work, rather than confined by ideological strictures. Its successes—such as revitalized growth, a revived military and renewed national morale — have given the US a strategic steadiness.
After the Cold War, however, the glue that had held these policies together began to loosen. Without an existential foe, Washington elites seemed to drift toward a missionary impulse: the United States would not only deter threats but also refashion distant societies in terms of national security – both theirs and ours in the West.
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