Tonight, President Obama will make yet another national address, this time on his latest plan to “manage” the murderous jihadist butchers known as the Islamic State. Even for political junkies in D.C., this president’s penchant for big, dramatic, empty speeches is wearing thin. There’s no question, however, that this is an important address, given the rapid battlefield success of the Islamic State and the alleged spread of the group to other countries (including the U.S.).

Yet the dangers we and the world face are not just from the Islamic State. In fact, the very worst thing the president could do tonight is to limit his attention to just the Islamic State. Yes, they are a terrifying threat, and one that needs to be eradicated (not just managed), but they are far from the only challenge demanding an American response. There is still al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, Al Shabaab, and others. In fact, the one thing nearly everyone agrees on, is that terrorism and Islamic jihadism are a far greater threat today than they were in 2001.

Unfortunately, however, even these irregular groups of non-state actors (what the world used to call “barbarians”) do not comprise the totality of the challenge to world peace. The international system, that amorphous collection of rules, norms, laws, and patterns of behavior, is being torn apart by Russia, Iran, and even China. These aggressive revisionist powers may never be strong enough to replace America, but they are causing huge disruption in their regions, attacking or destabilizing neighbors, rewriting rules of behavior, and seeking to dominate their neighborhoods. Whether you choose the 1930s, the 1910s, 1800s, or any other date, the specter of previous periods of global disorder is now a favorite talking point by pundits across the political spectrum.

What these dual, very different challenges (barbarians and revisionists) represent is a new two-front war. Our country, exhausted after 13 years of relatively limited warfare, has no historical experience with such an unending, variegated challenge. The question is whether President Obama fully recognizes that, understands the complexity of the challenge, and is prepared to level with the American people about the new generation of instability. In Politico Magazine today, I have a long article on this new war we face. Unlike the Romans, we should not accept just being reactive and perpetually waiting for the next blows to fall. We need a proactive strategy to eliminate threats such as the Islamic State and to deter (perhaps even contain) aggressive opportunists such as Putin. Otherwise, we face decades of ongoing – sometimes intermittent yet always present — struggle.