The Ins and Outs of the New Bush National Security Strategy
Session 2
November 20, 2002
Meeting Notes(pdf 59 KB)— Summarized by Michael Kraig, Ph.D.
Tom Donnelly, Resident Fellow, American Enterprise Institute
Jane Holl-Lute, Executive Vice President, United Nations Foundation
The second session of the task force focused on discussing, critiquing, and commenting on the National Security Strategy of the United States released by President Bush's administration in September 2002. In doing this, the task force was also asked to focus on the "macro" or "grand strategy" question of the ultimate purpose and role of US global preeminence in the 21st century. Participants will assess the meaning of preeminence and the potential consequences of pursuing the vision laid out in the Bush administration's National Security Strategy in light of the following questions:
What strategy will secure a sustainable peace without creating counterideologies or counteralliances in the long run? Is the rise of a near-peer competitor or hostile ideology inevitable, or do US strategies and actions play a large role in the evolution of such trends?
What does the term national security mean in the present threat environment? How broadly or narrowly should it be defined? What are its parameters, and in particular, what foreign policy and economic policy concerns should be encompassed by this concept, including broad trends and processes across regions that are viewed as destabilizing in the long term?
What are the meanings of traditional concepts such as prevention, deterrence, and dissuasion?
How can the United States tailor its strategy to deal with radically different regional environments in the developing world?
How can the United States define "conflict prevention" in a way that recognizes the role of nontraditional threats and processes (e.g., global poverty, resource scarcity, ethnic conflicts, failing states) while still remaining both manageable and effective?
And finally, does the Bush administration's National Security Strategy of the United States adequately address these questions? What are the likely long-term consequences of the Bush administration's strategy?