Time For A Re-definition: What Does National Security Mean?

Defining National Security

For far too long the U.S. has seen “national security” exclusively  as a military question.  American’s have been led to believe, certainly during the last eight years, that military superiority equaled national security.

The Bush Administration, and its “neo-con” policy influencers have denigrated the concept of “soft power”, repudiated long-standing and important bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements (The Geneva Convention) and shunned any who opposed it as being “wimps” or lacking a vision of American Empire.

Many on the far right even speak of “decoupling” – the idea that what happens in the rest of the world doesn’t matter to us. They still seem to believe that the U.S. is the only super-power and that America doesn’t need to react need to concern itself with global events because as the only remaining super-power we can dictate to the rest of the world and create events rather than having to respond to them. What could be further from the truth.

Decoupling is a myth. Globalization has caused the global economy to integrate. As we've seen, events in the U.S. have far-reaching consequences that spread rapidly to the rest of the world. And vice-versa.

The American situation at the beginning of the 21^st century demands a redefinition of whatthe idea of “national security” means to us. We can no longer afford to live in an intellectual bubble that insulates us from knowing what the consequences of our, and other global players, actions are.

If the freezing of lending, the collapse of the mortgage industry, troubles in the Automobile industry, government bailouts and the specter of corporate CEO’s begging for huge sums of money have taught us anything it should be that many things can affect our National Security, not just military affairs. We must expand our definition of national security to encompass financial well-being as well.

The exercise of wise “soft power” oversees, and proper government regulation of key industries at home are integral parts of America’s national security.