Strategic Myopia - by Ed Corcoran

Strategic Myopia
Posted by Ed Corcoran on 02/02/2009 :: Permalink :: Comments
STRATEGY: Planning the optimal application of resources to achieve major objectives

http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articles/090202168-strategic-myopia.htm

The core objective of national strategy is to insure the survival and prosperity of the nation -- "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" in the words of the Declaration of Independence. For a number of years, Soviet missiles actually threatened our national survival, and this threat obviously had a natural priority - prosperity and the institutions behind it are meaningless if the nation fails to survive. During these years, prosperity was also assured by the preeminent economic position of the United States - with less than 5% of global population, the nation enjoyed some 25% of global wealth. Even the poor in America were better off than literally billions of people on subsistence worldwide.

This strategic situation has been transformed. The threat of nuclear devastation has receded dramatically, though some lesser nuclear threats maintain a high salience. Yet, the most significant threats of violence to the nation are no longer from hostile nation states, but from a loose collaboration of transnational criminals and terrorist elements, many motivated by radical Islamic beliefs, that threatens to disrupt the critical networks which underpin modern life. Military forces have limited utility against such threats of violence, while the nation faces a whole new range of threats of economic disruption. Nothing illustrates this blurring of the boundary between violence and environment better than the twin threats of bioterror and bird flu - essentially the same threat, but one intended as a violent attack and the other a purely natural phenomenon.

Our strategy, however, has been slow to recognize these fundamental shifts. It still focuses on military and force solutions and minimizes the economic and environmental challenges which are much more difficult to define and address. Our military has also been slow to adjust; we still have almost no forces designed for constabulary duties or to provide security for economic development in hostile territories. Recently Secretary of Defense Gates himself has called for substantial increases in spending for the State Department. Yet, our strategic vision is now measured in months or years, certainly not decades or centuries.

The full posting can be read at http://sitrep.globalsecurity.org/articles/090202168-strategic-myopia.htm