Obama’s National Security Strategy

The new security strategy released yesterday by the Obama administration points to al-Qaida as the principal enemy, but excludes the expression “war on terror,” insisting that the use of force alone cannot guarantee security for the United States. The White House yesterday published its “National Security Strategy,” a framework document about how the United States evaluates and disrupts threats against them that, in the last 16 months, have led to intense consultations in the Obama administration. The “National Security Strategy,” a priority for the current president, is a document that the American government releases at the beginning of each term by Congressional requirement, setting the diplomatic and defense priorities of the country.

“We always seek to delegitimize the use of terrorism and to isolate those who carry it out;” the document indicates in 52 pages that it distances itself from the doctrine of preemptive strike and the unilateralism established by George W. Bush after September 11, and the notion of “war on terror” in particular. In its place, the new strategy emphasizes collaboration with ally countries and the fortification of international institutions as tools to resolve conflicts. “This is not a global war against a tactic — terrorism, or a religion — Islam,” specifies the text. “We are at war with a specific network, al-Qaida, and its terrorist affiliates who support efforts to attack the United States, our allies and partners.”

The text highlights threats that represent radicalized individuals who do not have the traditional profile of a terrorist, such as, for example, the young Nigerian who intended to blow up an airliner inside American territory on Christmas day or the father of the American family of Pakistani origin suspected of having planned an intended attack with a car bomb in New York on the first of May.

“Our best defenses against this threat are well informed and equipped families, local communities and institutions,” says the document, specifying that “the federal government will invest in intelligence.” Other central themes of the new doctrine are the struggle against the economic crisis and global warming, whose consequences put the security of the U.S. in danger.

The document tends to redefine what American foreign policy will be after two bloody wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a global economic crisis, while planning to precisely evaluate American interests abroad, like the use of force, designating numerous threats from cyberwar to epidemics occurring from poverty.

In order to reach these objectives, the new strategy proposes to rely on military power, but also on diplomacy, economic contacts, assistance and the development of education, while it simultaneously advocates for a focus “without illusion” in relations with enemies of the United States, like Iran and North Korea. The document maintains the possibility that Washington could take unilateral military action, but under stricter conditions than during the Bush era.