The Unsustainable Presidency develops a structural theory of the office by challenging and redefining the twin imperatives upon which the modern chief executive was constructed: unlimited economic growth and national security through the expansion of empire. Neither goal is sustainable in a world of global climate change and the waning of US military supremacy. Thus the modern presidency is an unsustainable office that as currently constituted is incapable of offering solutions to the problems confronting America and the world. The book's distinctive contributions center on building a critique of all leading theories of the presidency; forging an analysis of economic growth and national security policies as pursued in the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama; and pointing a way out of the catastrophic bind that confronts the Twenty-First Century president.