National Security Architecture

The tools with which Washington implements foreign policy have a determining effect on that policy. When the American capacity to rebuild after conflict resides in the Department of Defense, reconstruction looks like occupation. When the White House abdicates global economic policy to the Federal Reserve, it is easier to de-value our currency than to increase our global competitiveness.

Perhaps more important, the question of what decisions are eventually made is dependent on how those decisions are made. Today, the "interagency process" has been wrecked by years of misuse and neglect, while the underlying bureaucratic infrastructure dates back to 1947.

In the coming years, Washington will have to re-build the process of national security decision making and the tool box for implementing those decisions. In an ideal world, any new design will reflect a new consensus on national strategy, in the meantime, we know that crises will emerge and demand new responses and new configurations of power.

The American Strategy Program seeks to monitor, diagnose, and adapt the nation's national security architecture to meet the needs of the coming era. Our initiatives will look at current problems, viable solutions, and build consensus that gets decision makers the tools they need to deliver security and prosperity to the nation.

For more on our work on National Security Architecture, please click on the following links.

• Arms and Security Initiative
  
  
• Privatization of Foreign Policy Initiative

Click here for a comprehensive listing of all related content.