Fresh look at security

In little more than a year, the American people will elect a new president – one who will face a plethora of national security challenges.  The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will almost certainly continue to occupy a lot of the new administration’s time, as will the campaign to destroy al Qaeda and its progeny.    There are, however, a host of new and emerging national security challenges that will alter the global landscape and require new policies and tools.

Since the 9/11 attacks American policymakers have been focused on the challenge posed by radical Islam and the need to defeat al Qaeda and other groups bent on bringing sophisticated terrorism to America’s cities. The struggle against al Qaeda and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which has become a protracted, bloody and complicated conflict, have taxed our armed forces and absorbed enormous amounts of time and attention from the most senior officials in our government.

Even as we have been focused on the Middle East, the international order has been undergoing a profound transformation.  China has emerged as an economic competitor and may well mount a challenge to America’s strategic supremacy.  India, Asia’s other rising power, is becoming increasingly important to U.S. planners.  In Europe, a revanchist Russia, flush with oil and natural gas profits, has become increasingly hostile to the West. 

The national security implications of environmental and demographic changes will also have a profound affect on the United States in the 21st Century.  As the developed world ages, much of the rest of the world is experiencing a population boom – half of the population of Saudi Arabia, for example, is under 21.  The effects of this are already being felt in Europe, where increased immigration is fueling cultural, religious and racial tensions as formerly homogenous societies are diversifying at a rapid pace.   How will rising sea levels, altered weather patterns and increased desertification – all byproducts of global warming – affect our nation’s security?

This transformation of the security environment did not begin on 9/11; the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 touched off a series of entropic shifts in the international system.  The demise of Soviet communism was at first greeted with euphoria, but it soon became obvious that securing America had become a more complicated endeavor.

In 1998 President Bill Clinton with the support of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, devised a 14 member bipartisan commission to make strategic recommendations on how the United States could best ensure its security in the 21st century.  From 1999 – 2001 the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century (the Hart-Rudman commission) issued a series of three reports.  The first described how the world would evolve over the next quarter century.  The second devised a U.S. national security strategy to deal with the world in 2025.  The third report, issued only months before 9/11, recommended broad institutional and procedural changes throughout the U.S. government to meet the challenges of 2025. 

Among its findings, the commission warned in its first report of the danger of terrorism and predicted that terrorists would try to strike inside the United States.  To combat this threat, the commissioners recommended the creation of a National Homeland Security Agency.  Unfortunately, their entreaties came too late to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

Now, nearly seven years after the issuance of the last of the Hart-Rudman Commission reports, I believe that we need to take a new and comprehensive look at our national security – a review that will take into account this decade’s upheavals.

I will soon be introducing legislation to create a National Commission on Securing America in the 21st Century.  The commission will be bipartisan and its members will be appointed by Congressional leaders and by the Secretaries of State and Defense, as well as the Director of National Intelligence. 

The commission will be tasked to:

•Conduct a comprehensive review of the global security environment;   

•Perform a detailed overview of American strategic interests and objectives for the security environment we will likely encounter in the next two decades and beyond;

•Delineate a national security strategy appropriate to that environment;

•Identify a range of alternatives to implement the national security strategy;

•Develop a detailed plan to implement the range of alternatives; and

•Report to Congress and the President on its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to enhance American national security.

The challenge for the commission is simple: If the United States were starting from scratch in designing its national security apparatus, what would it look like?  How would we allocate our resources to build and maintain it? And, how can we best build on our existing institutions to better meet the challenges of the next quarter-century?

It’s time for a fresh look.

Schiff is a member of the House Appropriations and Judiciary committees.

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