Janine Davidson | Obama's Last National Security Strategy | Foreign Affairs - 2 views
www.foreignaffairs.com/...ast-national-security-strategy
obama national security strategy Peace Document
shared by bennordpaskin on 03 Mar 15
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The president’s second National Security Strategy articulates a belief in a peaceful, rules-based international order; it also reaffirms the fact that none of this can happen without the leadership of the United States. For scholars seeking to trace broader themes in the president’s foreign policy strategy, the document promises good historical value. But to expect it to provide definitive answers to every crisis that now simmers across the globe—that’s asking a bit much of any NSS.
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Recent announcements regarding military assistance to Ukraine, an authorization to use military force against ISIS, and hint
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s of a shift in the drawdown in Afghanistan may signal a recognition of these mismatches. With two years left in the White House, perhaps this document will mark a few course corrections.
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It is a thankless job to issue a new National Security Strategy, as U.S. President Barack Obama did this month. Its creation is a churn of dozens of drafts circulated among scores of hapless staffers, each of whom is tasked with name checking his or her very specific issue. There’s little room for prioritization or bold new ideas; any artful turns of phrase are quickly ground into merciless governmentese.
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This strategy is the second and last of Obama’s presidency, and it rightly describes a world beset by challenges and in dire need of American leadership (“lead,” “leader,” and “leadership” appear 94 times in the context of the United States’ role in the world).
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It’s a thoughtful approach that strives to cast an eye beyond the geopolitical brushfires of the day and into planning years or even decades into the future.
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The United States can’t identify a problem, shock-and-awe its way to victory, and expect to come home with all the loose ends neatly tied up. The world simply doesn’t work that way.
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On the other hand, the terrible consequences of the United States’ 2003 cowboy-hooting, gunslinging invasion of Iraq illustrate precisely the reason a policy of strategic patience must exist today.
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decisive action against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) as it gathered momentum in early June 2014.
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Article that describes Obama's second National Security Strategy; the document expresses a desire for rule based international order and the necessity for the leadership of the United States.
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Obama's National Security Strategy has a higher chance of succeeding a little bit better due to this stricter rules on international order.