16 Mar Bush’s National Security Strategy: Flexing Executive Muscle
With some fanfare, the President has released a revised National Security Strategy . The major papers and the media are already dissecting the strategy with each focusing on a different part (e.g. the BBC highlighting the commitment to preemptive attacks while the NYT focusing on the document’s attention on Iran as the single greatest threat.
The document obviously has no legal significance, either domestic or international. It is a pure policy statement but it is a nice example of the way the President can set the National Security agenda through formal statements that get lots of press coverage overseas and from domestic foreign policy elites. It is also healthy that the U.S. government (unlike some of its rival powers like Russia or China) puts its policy strategies out there in a relatively forthright manner subject to international and national debate. I’m still waiting for the public debate over the National Security Strategy for the People’s Republic of China.
The President confirms the policy that took us to Iraq and Prof. Ku not only doesn’t mention this, but criticizes those who do, because they don’t appreciate how refreshingly democratic such disclosure is in comparison to Russia’s and China’s secretiveness. Thanks Prof. Ku, for reminding the world about what’s really important and what “obviously has no legal significance”. I’m sure that that the hundreds of thousands that have lost their homes, were killed, wounded, kidnapped, and/or tortured thanks to this policy are really grateful that at least they saw it coming.
Although I disagree with the tone of the previous comment, it raises a valid point. The National Security Strategy does have international legal signficance in that it provides insight about the United States Government’s legal justification for future (and perhaps past) uses of force. Furthermore, the National Security Strategy statement will be significant in any analysis of whether there is an emerging norm of Pro-Democratic Intervention.