3D Security Initiative

The idea of 3D Security is making its rounds in Washington DC of late. For example, key themes that arose from a panel at the Brookings Institution on December 6th titled “Diplomacy and Security: Building a Solid Agenda for US Foreign Policy” pertained to the need for increased bipartisanship on the issue of national security, more effective coordination and communication between government agencies charged with handled some component of national security, and improved management (from the White House) of these various and disparate government agencies, from the National Security Council to the State Department to the Defense Department.

Theme #1: On bipartisanship, the topic of national security ranks first and foremost (according to the panelists) in the minds of Americans and (according to polls) Republicans and Democrats enjoy equal trust from the American public in handling national security. Rather than hurling insults at each other (between political parties), therefore, the panelists emphasized the need to look within our own institutions and cross the political divide for the sake of national security. The American public does care how the government exercises hard power and believes that is important to first know the thinking behind the governments we’re trying to influence.

Theme #2: Inter-agency coordination and communication (among government agencies charged with some piece of the national security agenda) is desperately needed, according to the panelists. In Iraq, for example, among the myriad of reconstruction and stabilization efforts, there is not one person or office overseeing the entirety of the process. Additionally, the State Department has been largely excluded from the reconstruction and stabilization process in Iraq. The State Department’s office of Reconstruction and Stabilization should have been more engaged in Iraq because that is what the office is mandated to do, yet Defense and the Bush Administration kept them at bay throughout the invasion and post-invasion process.

Theme #3: Under President Bush (senior), there was effective management between the National Security Council, the State Department and the Defense Department. This was the case, claimed the panelists, because Bush senior had intelligence background which provided him intimate knowledge of the internal systems and their functions. Bush senior understood how bureaucratic systems worked and could liaise and manage security systems effectively. The current President, however, doesn’t have that kind of background but is surrounded by those who do have this knowledge and manipulate it effectively to change the security system (for the worse, according to the panelists). Moreover, Vice President Cheney has usurped the standing of the National Security office and has built the VP’s office power to be on par with the previous power of the NSC.

These themes, the panelists stressed, were of critical importance now more than ever before because internal politics and internal systems (i.e. the three themes above) could no longer be insulated from external review. In the last 20-30 years there’s been a decline in the insularity of the United States and its politics and systems. Globalization has opened up the United States to external scrutiny. The world knows and cares about American partisanship (or bipartisanship) and how its security systems chose to coordinate and communicate (or failed to do so). Moreover, foreign policy is no longer a separate issue considered outside the purview of the American public. Foreign policy is deeply intertwined with domestic policy, making bipartisanship essential (despite the rise of partisanship, as one panelist noted). Congress, take note!

The panel was moderated by Carlos Pascual, Vice President and Director, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution and included the following panelists:
Michael O'Hanlon, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Morton H. Halperin, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
Kurt Campbell, Senior Vice President and Director of the International Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Priscilla A. Clapp, Retired, Minister-Counselor, U.S. Foreign Service
Arnold Kantor, Principal, Scowcroft Group

- Submitted by Michael Shank