President Bush's National Security Strategy: Is the U.S. Meeting Its Global Challenges?

Transcript

CARLOS PASCUAL: One of the things that we can all certainly say is that the National Security Strategy provides a vision, and that vision is very clear. It says that: "The goal of our statecraft is to help create a world of democratic, well-governed states that can meet the needs of their citizens and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system. This is the best way to provide enduring security for the American people." So, overall, it is a very grandiose vision that is set forth for American policy, American strategy, and what we seek to accomplish throughout the world.

The strategy itself goes extensively into the range of tools that are necessary to achieve that and particularly focuses a great deal of attention on democracy — democracy as an end point, democracy as a tool, democracy as a factor that is a function of a whole range of other tools such as foreign aid; diplomatic capabilities; sanctions and the selected use of sanctions; the application of military force when necessary.

One of the things that the National Security Strategy does not do, at length, is discuss how those tools are used in any given country's situation. While there are references to a number of different situations or regional issues, it does not go into detail, for the most part, in the application of those tools in any specific environment, and hence, part of what we want to get at today.

The National Security Strategy presents itself as a wartime strategy. What are those wars? Can we be effective, in fact, engaging in those wars?

It says that we need to end tyranny. Which tyrannies? Which ones are the ones that matter the most, and how does one approach that?

As we said, it lays out democracy as our greatest tool. Do we have the resources and the capabilities to advance democracy? Do we have the strategies to advance democracy effectively in any given country's environment?

It talks about retaining preemption as a tool. But is there a change in the way that we think about preemption and have we reflected on some of the lessons on the use of force and its legitimacy that have been learned in recent years?

It talks about terrorism and lays out, as the principal tool in addressing terrorism, the promotion of democracy as well as a number of short term factors. Is this an effective strategy?

Those are some of the key questions that we want to try to get at today.

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