The Limits of Hard Power Reid Smith In his recent essay, “The Price of American Retreat” (January/February 2025), Senator Mitch McConnell lamented the failures of the Biden administration’s foreign policy and warned that “the response to four years of weakness must not be four years of isolation.” McConnell fears that an American “retreat” would embolden adversaries to advance while forcing allies to cower. His remedy: restore industrial capacity to sustain U.S. military predominance