Obama Security Policy Stresses Diplomacy, Development and Coalitions

[ProSense]

Obama Security Policy Stresses Diplomacy, Development and Coalitions

This week, the Obama administration released its first National Security Strategy. The policy statement renews support for American military superiority in the world. But the fifty-two pages also talk about the importance of diplomacy, development and coalition-building to reach policy goals.

The Obama administration has sought to distance itself from the disputed policies of George W. Bush. The former president's policy on the right to attack possible threats came after the terrorist attacks in two thousand one.

Under a nineteen eighty-six law, presidents are supposed to report their national security goals to Congress each year. That has not happened. But the Obama administration has made its general goals known for some time.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls it "smart power." She discussed the new strategy report in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington. She said the United States is moving from mostly the direct exercise of power to what she called "a more sophisticated and difficult mix of indirect power and influence."

more

A Blueprint for Pursuing the World that We Seek

Posted by Nikki Sutton on May 27, 2010

The President’s highest priority is always to keep the American people safe. Today the Administration is releasing the National Security Strategy that lays out a strategic approach for advancing American interests, including the security of the American people, a growing U.S. economy, support for our values, and an international order that can address 21st century challenges.

• Read the full National Security Strategy (pdf)

The National Security Strategy is guided by a clear understanding of our increasingly interconnected world where the free flow of information, people and goods continues to accelerate at an unprecedented pace promising new opportunities while simultaneously posing challenges that no longer recognize borders: global networks of terrorists and criminals, threats in space and cyberspace, a degrading climate, and technologies with tremendous destructive power. The response systems and international architecture of the 20th century, designed for another time, are buckling under the weight of these new threats. Currently, these realities describe the world as it is.

Throughout American history, we have risen to such moments of transition and faced new challenges head on to help shape a world of greater security and prosperity. The National Security Strategy is a blueprint for pursuing the world that we seek by outlining a strategy to rebuild our foundations, promote a just and sustainable international order, strengthen and integrate national capabilities, all while advancing American interests, security, prosperities, and universal values.

From ensuring strong alliances, which are the foundation of U.S., regional and global security, to leveraging American leadership to encourage sustained international cooperation to address global issues, America has the tools to face the national security challenges of the 21st century while holding true to the universal values our nation has stood for since its founding.

Chairman Kerry On President Obama's National Security Strategy

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) today released the following statement applauding President Obama’s National Security Strategy, which he said breaks decisively with the Bush-era approach to the world. Instead of casting U.S. foreign policy through the prism of conflict, the new strategy emphasizes the cooperation we need to meet the most pressing threats to our security.

“President Obama’s National Security Strategy restores a reality-based approach to meet our security imperatives. The president recognizes we can’t achieve the world we want if we don’t recognize the world as it is today, and that combination of idealism and realism is the foundation of his strategy. This new strategy reflects a pragmatic worldview of the challenges we face and the reality and limits of the tools we have to meet them through the full arsenal of our power -- moral, diplomatic, and military. The Bush strategy acknowledged climate change as a security threat, but this new strategy aims to tackle it with concrete policies. The Bush strategy acknowledged the dangers of proliferation but rested on policies that unraveled global cooperation. This strategy aims to rebuild that frayed consensus. It promotes our values but recognizes that sometimes we have to work with those who don’t share them in order to get things done in a complicated world where shades of grey abound. It’s idealistic but sober, strong but smart. It recognizes not just what we aim to do but takes a pragmatic approach to getting it done.”

[ProSense]

1. No comment? n/t

[Jennicut]

2. I never understood why Bush just completely gave up on diplomacy.

Well, I do understand why but the go it alone approach never seemed to work.