The Critical Foundation of National Security Strategy

Abstract

This paper examines the flawed foundation of the Clinton Administration's National Security Strategy (NSS), which lacks clear, coherent priorities. An essential starting point in developing a NSS is to determine the ends to be achieved by differentiating between specific national interests based upon threats to those interests that are not threat-based. Determining the degree of national interests within the global landscape allows the ends to be prioritized, helps determine the costs and risks of achieving or enhancing those interests, and allows decision makers a focus for making choices among short-term and long-term policies. The current NSS, "A National Security Strategy for a New Century," fails to differentiate between the nation's specific national interests and concomitant threats because it hinges on a foundation of five key, but questionable, assumptions. This paper explores potential liabilities inherent in those assumptions and proposes that the United States must undertake a critical analysis of its national interests and threats to serve as the bedrock for development of a future NSS.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1998
Accession Number
ADA442004

Entities

People

  • Kathy A. Jenner

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Cold War
  • Domestic
  • Environmental Assessment
  • Information Operations
  • International Organizations
  • Leadership
  • National Security
  • Security
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies