Obama's NSS - More of the Same? Posted by Michael Cohen

David Shorr makes the very fair point that to argue Obama's NSS is a continuation of George W. Bush's NSS is to ignore some fairly large elephants in the room - like the fact that the Bush's second term NSS was a recognition that his first term had been a complete and unmitigated disaster.

But, having said that, while there are very different areas of emphasis in this NSS (a focus on the domestic economy, a recognition that climate change, you know, exists) on the big ones there is a lot of overlap, particularly in its slavish adherence to the war on terrorism, its failure to prioritize and make tough choices, its platitudinous support for multilateral institutions, diplomacy, democracy promotion etc. Oh and then there is the yawning chasm between priorities and capabilities (see: war in Afghanistan for further reference).

In the end, this NSS seems like its built on the shaky foundation of Beltway conventional foreign policy wisdom about US primacy and our habitually broad post-Cold War definition of US interests.

I actually think David Rothkopf captured this sentiment well:

Want an innovative national security strategy? Start by living up to the promise of the president's earlier speeches rather than his recent penchant for slipping deadlines and dilutive compromises. Then recognize that we are going to have to narrow our ambitions, recognize the implications of our dwindling resources, move away from mid-century paradigms of American hegemony (or early 90s fantasies of same), find true partnerships with partners who are often rivals and often have values different from our own, establish principles wherein the use of force is not squandered on actions which have primarily domestic political goals but is available when needed, cut bureaucracy, cut duplication, recognize changing military paradigms. 

In fact (and I'd be curious if Heather agrees) much of Obama's NSS reminds me not of Bush but of second term Clinton foreign policy. That it's necessarily a bad thing; after all Clinton didn't plunge the nation into a disastrous war or alienate key allies, but it's not exactly "changing the mindset" either.

In an e-mail exchange earlier I was reminded of that scene in Risky Business where Tom Cruise meets with the college recruiter from Princeton, who looking over his record tells him there is some good work there, but it's not exactly Princeton good.

Of course, then Cruise gets the recruiter laid and everything works out for the best.

Ah, if only transforming American foreign policy was so easy!

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