Washington Post:
Walter Pincus
Sen. John McCain, the new chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants the fiscal 2016 defense budget to be strategy-driven rather than budget-driven.
Defense Department officials claim the $585.3 billion being sought in the Pentagon’s fiscal 2016 request is strategy-driven.
But what’s President Obama’s strategy? And if you are like McCain and don’t like it, what should America’s strategy be?
McCain (R-Ariz.) has criticized Obama for being “reactive,” with no discernible overall strategy.
On Jan. 21, McCain said, “We must have a strategy based on a clear-eyed assessment of the threats we face and a budget that provides the resources necessary to confront them.”
McCain, seeking strategy advice, held three Armed Services panel hearings in January titled “Global Challenges and U.S. National Security Strategy.”He heard from two former national security advisers (Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski), three retired senior military officers (Marine Gen. James N. Mattis, Adm. William J. Fallon, Army Gen. John M. Keane) and three former secretaries of state (Henry A. Kissinger, George P. Shultz and Madeleine Albright).
Testimony from all three sessions shows how difficult strategy-making is. There are many varied views.
In fact, the testimony provides both support and criticism for Obama’s policies, making it no surprise that nobody offered an overall strategy.
All recognized that today’s threats — although far less dangerous than the Cold War’s potential nuclear exchanges — are more complex.
Kissinger summed it up best, saying, “The United States has not faced a more diverse and complex array of crises since the end of the Second World War.”
Any new strategy, he said, must shift from an emphasis on economic and military power “to include also psychological contests and asymmetric wars.”
That’s because the existing order of nation states is being challenged, as well as the relationship between regions. At the same time, instant communications demand immediate interaction.
In contrast to McCain, Kissinger recognizes that U.S. foreign policy has always been reactive.
“We have been secure behind two great oceans,” he said. “So, for Americans, security presented itself as a series of individual issues for which there could be a pragmatic solution, after which there was no need for further engagement until the next crisis came along.”
Americans traditionally have focused on short-term foreign policy solutions rather than pursuing long-term strategies.
Kissinger, however, suggested there are necessary questions to be answered in a national dialogue before strategies can be developed. For example, “What are our objectives? What are the best means to achieve these objectives? How can we sustain them over a period of time?”
