The challenges America faces are great, yet we have enormous power andinfluence to address those challenges.The times require an ambitious nationalsecurity strategy, yet one recognizing the limits to what even a nation as powerfulas the United States can achieve by itself. Our national security strategy isidealistic about goals, and realistic about means.

There was a time when two oceans seemed to provide protection from problemsin other lands, leaving America to lead by example alone.That time has longsince passed.America cannot know peace, security, and prosperity by retreatingfrom the world. America must lead by deed as well as by example.This is howwe plan to lead, and this is the legacy we will leave to those who follow.

George Bush, forty-first president of the United States (1989A-1993), is the coauthor with Brent Scowcroft of the 1998 critically acclaimed book ""A World Transformed."" He and his wife, Barbara, live in Houston, Texas, and Kennebunkport, Maine.