Improving the United States National Security Strategy: An Informed Public
Abstract
The National Security Strategy (NSS) of the United States of America communicates the President's and this nation's grand strategy developed from our national purpose. President Bush published the current NSS in September 2002. This strategy is comprehensive and detailed in many areas, but a careful reading of it shows it lacks a clear vision statement related to the informational instrument of national power. This paper discusses the need to have the President build an information and communications strategy that keeps the American public informed and cognizant of the threat to our national security from militant, Islamic fundamentalists. It will examine the U.S. Code Title 50 requirement that directs the President to complete a NSS and review the 2002 National Security Strategy from an information perspective. It then identifies the current militant Islamic threat to America's security as well as the strategic principles underlying the need to broadly inform the public. Additionally, it confirms the importance of knowing one's threat; discusses the historic precedence of informing the public from the national strategy level to show this war has many similarities to the Cold War waged against the Soviet Union and communism; and examines the recommendations from the 9/11 Commission Report and the Defense Science Board's report on strategic communications on how to improve our foreign and domestic policies. The paper concludes with specific recommendations to change the current security strategy to incorporate a presidential vision for an information strategy, issue a new Presidential Decision Directive to implement the strategy, and keep focused on the threat for the long run.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 18, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA431968
Entities
People
- Patrick C. Malackowski
Organizations
- United States Army War College