What is the connection between having a strong military and being a global economic competitor?

To maintain this position in a new era of great power competition today, the United States needs to continue to invest in the world and commit to the growth of security and stability abroad. Currently, overseas military and economic engagement occur sporadically and somewhat independently. Instead, what is needed is a written, integrated military, economic, and social campaign plan to mitigate terrorism, migrant flows, and other non-state threats to security and prosperity around the world. Such an effort would, in fact, be connected to great power dynamics: It can be a means to exercise national power to counter Chinese development and military investments by taking a long-term approach to nation-building and fostering stable future partners, just as the Marshall Plan once did vis-à-vis the Soviet Union. Specifically, this kind of effort should be undertaken toward Africa and Latin America, to shore up areas that are in the strategic backyards of the United States and its allies in Europe.