Transforming War and Terror- Sustaining Ourselves

America can no longer afford not to fully look at the real meaning of national security. Our prosperity is directly tied to how we maintain world sustainability. Can we as a people have the courage to truly see that were a greater source of terror may hide?

Two years ago two special Assistants to the Chairman for Strategy to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Captain Wayne Porter, US Navy, and Colonel Mark “Puck” Mykleby, US Marine Corps wrote A NATIONAL STRATEGIC NARRATIVE By Mr. Y below is a short summary of their perspective (http://onpoint.wbur.org/2011/04/26/pentagon-security)

This Strategic Narrative is intended to frame our National policy decisions regarding investment, security, economic development, the environment, and engagement well into this century. It is built upon the premise that we must sustain our enduring national interests – prosperity and security – within a “strategic ecosystem,” at home and abroad; that in complexity and uncertainty, there are opportunities and hope, as well as challenges, risk, and threat. The primary approach this Strategic Narrative advocates to achieve sustainable prosperity and security, is through the application of credible influence and strength, the pursuit of fair competition, acknowledgement of interdependencies and converging interests, and adaptation to complex, dynamic systems – all bounded by our national values.

Porter and Mykleby cite “America is a country conceived in liberty, founded on hope, and built upon the notion that anything is possible with enough hard work and imagination.

They further state;
”America’s national strategy in the second half of the last century was anchored in the belief that our global environment is a closed system to be controlled by mankind – through technology, power, and determination – to achieve security and prosperity”. But we failed to recognize that dominance, like fossil fuel, is not a sustainable source of energy. The new century brought with it a reminder that the world, in fact, is a complex, open system – constantly changing. And change brings with it uncertainty. What we really failed to recognize, is that in uncertainty and change, there is opportunity and hope.

Mr Y continues further:

“It is time for America to re-focus our national interests and principles through a long lens on the global environment of tomorrow. It is time to move beyond a strategy of containment to a strategy of sustainment (sustainability); from an emphasis on power and control to an emphasis on strength and influence; from a defensive posture of exclusion, to a proactive posture of engagement. We must recognize that security means more than defense, and sustaining security requires adaptation and evolution, the leverage of converging interests and interdependencies…

The bottom-line conclusion is that security and sustainability are interdependent. Without one the other does not happen. Let’s get lean and green and solve our problems with mending rather than ending. Otherwise our home will become a nasty war torn battlefield.

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