Restructuring the US National Security Architecture Posted by Michael Cohen

Over at World Politics Review, I have a new piece highlighting the various obstacles to an effective US national security strategy and what steps I believe the Obama Administration should take to right the ship:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama famously declared that he was running for the nation's highest office not simply to end the war in Iraq, but to change the mindset that got America involved in Iraq in the first place. More than a year into his presidency, he is discovering that such a seminal transformation is far easier said than done.

From Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay to repairing America's impaired global image, precious energy and political capital is being spent extricating America from the disastrous impact of the Bush administration's stewardship of U.S. foreign policy. But as catastrophic as the individual policies were, the greatest damage of the Bush years may have been in diverting U.S. attention away from the fundamental transformations taking place in the global arena, changes on which Obama and his foreign policy team are now being forced to play catch-up.

More and more, the underpinnings of American power are being challenged by a host of aggressive and increasingly prominent transnational and non-state forces. While the U.S. maintains its fixation on the threat of jihadist terror, a new and arguably more pressing set of global issues have emerged -- including climate change, migration, global health pandemics, cybersecurity threats, nuclear proliferation and illicit criminal networks. A 21st-century national security strategy must prioritize these issues and place them front and center in the policymaking process.

But in both focus and capabilities, the United States is increasingly ill-prepared and ill-equipped to deal with these emerging challenges. Instead of charting a desperately needed new course, current U.S. national security strategy -- driven by inflated conceptions of U.S. power and interests -- is impeding the need for real and lasting reform. At a moment in history when the changing dynamics of global politics demand a new foreign policy toolbox and mindset, the United States remains handcuffed by a national security infrastructure and strategy that is deeply mired in 20th-century thinking.

Read the whole thing here.

 

Comments

[Don Bacon]

I would add that one of the impediments to real reform, a principal one, is the tendency of every congressional representative to treat the Pentagon budget as a cash cow. Representatives and senators freely brag about the big bucks they bring into their districts because increased spending directly affects employment and campaign contributions. It's a win-win.

For example, one thing the entire New England congressional delegation agrees on is to keep building naval ships at the Bath Iron Works, and so on through every district. The Pentagon has strategically placed its military installations and parceled out its procurement subcontracts so that no congress-critter can 'just say no' to obscenely high military budgets at a time when the US is not threatened by any military force.

Pentagon spending in districts is a drug on progress, and I don't see any antidote.

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It needs constant reiteration that national security is strategic in nature, it is long-term and embraces both foreign and domestic policies. All those clamouring for “action against Pakistan” should realize that, quite apart from the obvious human and other costs that any military engagement with the world’s 9th largest army armed with nuclear weapons would entail, such action may only trigger even more enmity in the future. Any steps taken should be part of a longer-term strategy, meaning measures designed to achieve desired goals.

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