U.S. National Security Strategy for Engagement....The Missing Tier
Abstract
The end of the Cold War has thrust the United States into a world that effectively rendered fifty years of a carefully crafted national security strategy obsolete. Over the past several years, political pundits, politicians, members of the defense establishment, and the White House have grappled with developing a coherent strategy to replace it. The result, A National Security Strategy for a New Century, was issued in May 1997 and was followed almost immediately by its attendant National Military Strategy. These companion documents recognize that the key to engaging New World complexities is to embrace a set of national security goals based on a set of integrated regional approaches. Since the issuance of these complementary documents, the national security minded intelligencia have been debating the merits and shortcomings they embody in meeting the needs of the country. Few seem ready to declare that these documents are a complete success. However there also seems to be little consensus on what specifically must be done to improve them. In short, we all agree something seems amiss, but know not what. This paper will make the argument that nothing is seriously flawed in National Security Strategy or National Military Strategy. Rather, the problem lies in two very important missing elements of supporting security strategy and a lack of an operational construct for developing, testing, and evaluating it.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA441969
Entities
People
- R. T. Rushton
Organizations
- National War College