21 July 2009
Redefining Defense
In the Executive Summary of the recent publication of the National Defense University, “Civilian Surge: Key to Complex Operations,” the editors (Hans Binnendijk and Patrick M. Cronin) list four alternatives for reorganizing the U.S. government’s approach to the integration of the civilian and military tasks required for responding to modern challenges to the international (and domestic) security of the country. These include doing nothing, letting the armed forces take the lead and increasing reliance on civilian contractors. The recommended solution is to create new civilian agency capabilities for taking charge of the social, non-martial aspects of establishing and maintaining order in regional communities.
A different approach would be to redefine the mission of the Department of Defense away from protecting the national borders against attacks by foreign governments to preserving order in the global community that we participate in. Threats to America’s national security today more commonly involve combinations of challenges—cyber disruptions, natural disasters, terrorism, to name a few, in addition to geopolitical pressure. The need to innovate security strategies that complement military tactics with civilian ones is demanded because of the sclerotic organization of our national resources. It still reflects an antiquated world view that did not anticipate the power of virtual states in the conduct of human affairs.
The Obama Administration is faced with many challenges--health care, economic recovery, environmental change, etc. But that should not obscure the fact that it leads a country whose strategic field contains many significant players who are not members of the United Nations. The real mission of national defense on our virtually borderless planet is to achieve effective regulation of political, economic, human rights, and a host of other behaviors so as to allow peaceful coexistence among all those players.
In the Executive Summary of the recent publication of the National Defense University, “Civilian Surge: Key to Complex Operations,” the editors (Hans Binnendijk and Patrick M. Cronin) list four alternatives for reorganizing the U.S. government’s approach to the integration of the civilian and military tasks required for responding to modern challenges to the international (and domestic) security of the country. These include doing nothing, letting the armed forces take the lead and increasing reliance on civilian contractors. The recommended solution is to create new civilian agency capabilities for taking charge of the social, non-martial aspects of establishing and maintaining order in regional communities.
A different approach would be to redefine the mission of the Department of Defense away from protecting the national borders against attacks by foreign governments to preserving order in the global community that we participate in. Threats to America’s national security today more commonly involve combinations of challenges—cyber disruptions, natural disasters, terrorism, to name a few, in addition to geopolitical pressure. The need to innovate security strategies that complement military tactics with civilian ones is demanded because of the sclerotic organization of our national resources. It still reflects an antiquated world view that did not anticipate the power of virtual states in the conduct of human affairs.
The Obama Administration is faced with many challenges--health care, economic recovery, environmental change, etc. But that should not obscure the fact that it leads a country whose strategic field contains many significant players who are not members of the United Nations. The real mission of national defense on our virtually borderless planet is to achieve effective regulation of political, economic, human rights, and a host of other behaviors so as to allow peaceful coexistence among all those players.
Comments:
Post a Comment
