The most important event of 2008 for the future of the United States is the November presidential election. Whoever wins that race, regardless of political party, will inherit a nation weary but determined after seven years of war and hungry for a new vision for American leadership at home and abroad. Unlike many previous U.S. elections, foreign policy is likely to loom large in the 2008 campaign, and the successful candidate will be the one who offers the American people an approach that balances their desire for protection at home with a wiser internationalism that goes beyond Iraq and the war on terror.