Sustainable Security from the Perspective of the Obama Transition Team

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, Benjamin Armbruster, Ali Frick, and Ryan Powers
NATIONAL SECURITY
On The Path To Sustainable Security

Yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama announced his national security team, naming Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) as Secretary of State, retired Gen. James Jones as National Security Adviser, Robert Gates as Defense Secretary, and Susan Rice as U.N. Ambassador. The nominations signaled "a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the national security arena" to create "a greatly expanded corps of diplomats and aid workers that, in the vision of the incoming Obama administration, would be engaged in projects around the world aimed at preventing conflicts and rebuilding failed states," observed the New York Times. An Obama adviser told the Times that Clinton, Jones, and Gates have all embraced "'a rebalancing of America's national security portfolio' after a huge investment in new combat capabilities during the Bush years." The appointments reflect Obama's commitment to seek sustainable security, which ties national security to the economic and political security of people around the world. "[T]he time has come for a new beginning," Obama said. "[W]e must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy; our intelligence and law enforcement; our economy and the power of our moral example."

SUSTAINABLE SECURITY: Yesterday's announcement signaled that the Obama administration will turn decisively away from the Bush model of relying predominantly on military power. As Clinton said when accepting the nomination of Secretary of State, "We know our security, our values, and our interests cannot be protected and advanced by force alone -- nor, indeed, by Americans alone. We must pursue vigorous diplomacy using all the tools we can muster to build a future with more partners and fewer adversaries, more opportunities and fewer dangers for all who seek freedom, peace, and prosperity." The new administration will embrace the goal of sustainable security, a concept "defined by the contours of a world gone global and shaped by our common humanity." Sustainable security calls for a melding of traditional national security with human security (or, the well-being and safety of people) and collective security (or, the shared interests of the entire world). "The pursuit of sustainable security requires more than a reliance on our conventional power to deflect threats to the United States, but also that we maintain the moral authority to lead a global effort to overcome threats to our common security," Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Gayle Smith explains. Reuben Brigety, the Director of the Sustainable Security Project at CAP, said, "In very important ways, the more we actually help other people in other countries improve their livelihoods, to improve their political prospects in their countries, the more secure we make our own country against the sources of terrorism."

REJECTING THE BUSH MODEL: "Because of President Bush's insistence on a militaristic 'war on terror' strategy, the U.S. has not seriously addressed the conditions that facilitate the rise of an ideology like Al Qaeda's," the Wonk Room's Matt Duss writes. Bush has steadfastly refused to engage in diplomacy and dialogue with America's enemies, despite the fact that such an "unreasonable and imperious approach...has always worked to the advantage" of hardliners in Iran and other countries. Iraq, Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and extraordinary rendition have destroyed worldwide opinion of America. "We have also lost precious time, and are well behind the curve in our now tardy efforts to tackle the global challenges that are already shaping our future -- climate change, energy insecurity, growing resource scarcity, the proliferation of illegal syndicates moving people, arms, and money...that have been steadfastly ignored" by the Bush administration, Smith writes.

RE-ALLOCATING RESOURCES: Moving toward a sustainable security will require re-allocating resources from the Pentagon to the civilian-based "corps of diplomats" Obama is creating. Gates agrees: "He has argued that more resources should be devoted to diplomacy and has warned about the creeping militarization of U.S. foreign policy." Speaking last July, Gates said, "Our diplomatic leaders -- be they in ambassadors' suites or on the seventh floor of the State Department -- must have the resources and political support needed to fully exercise their statutory responsibilities in leading American foreign policy." Gates shares Clinton and Obama's dedication to a new, sustainable security, understanding that America cannot simply "kill or capture our way to victory" over the long term, as he explained in July. "Broadly speaking, when it comes to America's engagement with the rest of the world, it is important that the military is -- and is clearly seen to be -- in a supporting role to civilian agencies," he said. In fact, a senior Pentagon advisory board recently warned the President-elect that the Defense Department's budget is "not sustainable" and said he "must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs." "The current and future fiscal environments facing the department demand bold action," the report said.