National security in the 21st century looks more like a Rubik’s Cube than a game of chess. As much as Americans might prefer a world with one big threat and one simple formula for fighting it–Islamofascism as the successor to Nazism and communism–that is just not the world we live in. The rise of China, the risk of global pandemics, nuclear proliferation, transnational terrorism, environmental catastrophe–these are only some of the interconnected dangers and challenges we must face. On 9/11 the United States was focused on China. After 9/11 we swiveled and looked to the Middle East instead. But while we are watching Al Qaeda and Iraq we could get equally blindsided tomorrow.
An effective national-security strategy in the 21st century must build an infrastructure of capacity and cooperation to meet whatever comes at us, so we may respond quickly and flexibly. It must invest our time and money in technology, diplomacy, institutions and policies that have maximum impact and multiple uses. It must be guided by an overarching concept, but one that offers a positive vision of the world and concrete policies for achieving that vision rather than a fear-based response to a specific threat. That vision is a world of “liberty under law”: a world of stable democracies able to provide their citizens both order and liberty, and of effective international institutions able to build democracy over the long term, safeguard human rights, and use force when necessary to uphold international law.
How do we get there? First, the United States should drop the idea of fighting a global war against Islamofascism. This conception of the terrorist threat squeezes all of America’s enemies into a simple box, encourages a clash of civilizations and dignifies terrorists as warriors rather than outlaws and mass murderers. It also is a fundamental misdiagnosis of the problem of terrorism, which experts increasingly see as a global insurgency, to be fought with the combined techniques of intelligence, law enforcement and special operations.
Second, America should concentrate on a multipronged approach to building strong liberal democracies over a period of years, even decades, rather than months. Our own founders focused on the “combined blessings of order and liberty,” in Thomas Jefferson’s words. Elections cannot be the only tool in our toolbox while we are working to promote democracy. Instead, we should work with other democracies around the world to bring governments up to “PAR”– i.e., to the point where they are popular, accountable and rights-regarding.
Third, the United States should lead the way in rebuilding our global institutions. Multilateral institutions are a crucial source of American strength–a force multiplier–but the institutions that we and our allies built after World War II are in serious disrepair. Begin with the United Nations, and the Security Council, which still reflects the power realities of the world in 1945. We must enlarge it to include countries like Germany, Japan, South Africa, India and Brazil, and we must make it more effective by ending the veto for resolutions calling for direct action in response to crises. At the same time, we should create a global Concert of Democracies to ratify and strengthen the democratic peace. The Concert should itself be a forum for pushing for United Nations reform, but it could also provide an alternative to the Security Council if reform fails.
Finally, America should renew its “grand bargain” with the rest of the world. For 50 years after 1945, the United States created and led a stable and prosperous world order organized around open markets, democracy, alliance pacts and cooperative institutions. American national security and global security were tied together. America associated its national security with the building of a liberal international order that responded to the aspirations of many nations and peoples.
Now, in the 21st century, the United States has an opportunity to rise up and do so again–in new ways, to be sure, in response to new realities. The patient pursuit of liberty under law is a strategy for building a new global order that makes America safe–and also proud of itself.
