Five Key Facts Likely To Be Left Out Of The Next National Security Strategy (From Forbes)

The Obama Administration will release a revised version of the National Security Strategy early next year covering all the tools of global influence that Washington wields from military power to statecraft to trade policy to popular culture. However, a few key facts are likely to be left on the cutting room floor rather than making the final edit, because they are just too inconvenient for policymakers to face. The strategy won’t acknowledge that arms control can make us less safe; it won’t concede that terrorists came here because we went there; it won’t admit that weak enforcement of trade treaties has undercut U.S. power; it won’t recognize that the welfare state has become a threat to global security; and it won’t state that the power of example doesn’t count for much in world politics. Unfortunately, failing to assimilate these realities into our national strategy is a prescription for reliving the errors of the past. I have written a commentary for Forbes here.