Report urges "integrated" approach to "asymmetric" threats
The 36-page report, which summarizes many of the presentations and comments made at an all-day symposium held at NDU on May 8, 2008, asserts that the U.S. no longer dominates a bi-polar world, when the U.S. was pitted against the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but faces a bewildering array of military, political, economic and social threats that can burst onto the scene at any time, and at any place.
To make matters worse, the report noted, the U.S. no longer has the military or economic muscle to call the shots unilaterally on the international stage. Instead, as was demonstrated in the case of Russian aircraft and Russian ground forces attacking breakaway regions in Georgia the past three days, President Bush can do little more than call for an immediate end to the fighting.
"Georgia is a sovereign nation and its territorial integrity must be respected," said Bush, lamely, from the Olympics in China; even as Russia’s strongman, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, essentially ignored the White House and hastily flew out of Beijing to southern Russia, where he took control of his nation’s aggressive military operations.
The asymmetric threat report hopes to stimulate a dialogue among today’s political leaders – and the incoming Administration – about ways to develop what it sees as an "integrated" and "whole government" approach to these emerging threats, one that utilizes both America’s military strength and its non-military assets.
"An Integrated National Asymmetric Threat Strategy must ensure that the right balance is achieved between and among the elements of soft and kinetic power," says the study.
This approach is not new, of course, but the report does an excellent job of pulling together a wide range of threats -- terrorism, failed states, scarcity of resources, economic rivals, etc. -- and potential U.S. Government responses -- sharpened communications, focused economic moves, regional diplomacy, etc. – which could help blunt those threats.
The symposium and the follow-on report were largely inspired by one book, Asymmetrical Warfare, by Roger W. Barnett, a professor emeritus at the Naval War College, according to Jack London, formerly the CEO and currently the Executive Chairman of CACI. London told me last week that Barnett’s stimulating book, plus intriguing conversations he had had with Warren Phillips, a CACI board member and University of Maryland professor, led to CACI’s decision to pull together a "non-partisan" look at the foreign policy mess in which the U.S. currently finds itself.
London said the symposium was not an overt attempt to capture the hearts and minds of new McCain or Obama Administration policy makers, but simply an effort to kick-off a much-needed dialogue about a broader and more comprehensive approach to devising a U.S. national security strategy than the Bush Administration has thus far developed.
Experts such as General Anthony Zinni (USMC-Ret), now an executive vice president at Dyncorp International, and James Pavitt, a former deputy director of operations at the CIA, and now a principal with The Scowcroft Group, participated in the symposium, but London said the meeting was never perceived as an "audition" for cabinet positions in an incoming presidential administration.
"We were trying to focus on the significant pieces of the global problem," explained London. "Within that complex situation, we tried to enumerate some of the key issues."
CACI and NDU are now planning two more follow-on sessions. The next one, slated for October, will focus on U.S. "soft power," such as diplomacy, communications and economics. A third session, scheduled for February 2009, shortly after the next president is inaugurated, will take a close look at U.S. "hard power," said London.
- Add your comment
- trackback url: http://www.gsnmagazine.com/cms/trackback/937-1
