The imperative for American leadership arises from the nature of international relations on the eve of the 21st century, the unique position of the United States, and the rapid pace of global change. The world today is more complex and integrated than at any time in history. The number of active participants - nation states and, increasingly, nonstate actors - pursuing their interests and vying for influence continues to increase. In some cases, this competition is proceeding with fewer international constraints than in the bipolar world of the Cold War era. At the same time, the world is becoming increasingly interdependent. International borders are no longer the barriers they once were. While interdependence has many positive features, such as greater prosperity, it also means that events in other parts of the world are increasingly able to affect the United States.
American security is now increasingly tied to the security and stability of other regions. Imagine, for example, the impact on the U.S. economy of any major disruption in trade as a result of instability in Asia or Europe. One quarter of the U.S. gross domestic product is now tied to either exporting or importing. Potential events that would not have been at the center of America's security concerns in the past - the spread of ethnic conflict in Europe, the breakdown of law and order in the Caribbean, the disruption of trade - could pose real threats to the security and well-being of Americans.
Since the founding of the Republic, the U.S. government has always sought to secure for its people a set of basic objectives:
Threats to the interests of the United States, its allies, and its friends can come from a variety of sources. Prominent among these are:
Many of these threats are global in scale. They cannot, for the most part, be adequately addressed unilaterally, either by the United States or any other single nation state. Hence, it will be increasingly important that the United States secures the cooperation of a number of groups, nations, and international organizations to protect Americans from such threats.
NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY
The Administration's National Security Strategy recognizes both that the world continues to confront the United States with serious threats and that interdependence is an inescapable reality. To protect and advance U.S. interests, then, the American government must be able to influence the policies and actions of others beyond its borders. This mandates that the United States remains engaged abroad, particularly in regions where its most important interests are at stake. At the same time, it is essential that U.S. allies and friends share responsibility for regional and global security more broadly. The United States and its allies must work together to help build a more peaceful and prosperous world. This means, among other things, taking pragmatic steps to enlarge the world's community of free-market democracies. To the extent that democracy and market economics hold sway in other nations, the United States will be more secure, prosperous, and influential, while the world as a whole will be more humane and peaceful.
As the President's National Security Strategy states, "Our national security is based on enlarging the community of market democracies while deterring and containing a range of threats to our nation, our allies and our interests." The three principal components of this strategy of engagement and enlargement are:
These goals underscore that the only responsible strategy for the United States is one of international engagement. Isolationism in any form would reduce U.S. security by undercutting the United States' ability to influence events abroad that can affect the well-being of Americans in many ways.
This does not mean that the United States seeks the role of global policeman. But it does mean that America must be ready and willing to protect its interests, both now and in the future. As the United States moves into the next century, being militarily ready will require more than sustaining a high level of training or morale, or maintaining good, reliable equipment and facilities. While such measures are critical, being ready also means being prepared to conduct a broad range of military missions, including new ones, without spreading U.S. military forces too thin. It is vital to the United States that its military forces retain their current ability to successfully function in a wide range of operational environments.
The forces and programs developed in the Bottom-Up Review and the Nuclear Posture Review outlined in this document will provide the capabilities needed to support this ambitious strategy. U.S. forces today are without question the best in the world. The Administration's defense program will keep them that way.
Regional Implications of U.S. National Security Strategy
The security relationships that the United States and its allies and friends have inherited from the Cold War are key to advancing the post-Cold War agenda. It is difficult to imagine that progress toward a more peaceful and prosperous world would not be impeded by a weakening of this security framework. The top priority must be to strengthen and adapt U.S. partnerships to meet post-Cold War challenges. The alternative -- an erosion of U.S. alliances and trading partnerships -- would lead to widespread instability and diminished U.S. influence over international events and decisions that affect the everyday lives of Americans. The United States will also seek to establish new security relationships to protect and advance its interests.
In Europe, the end of the Cold War has opened up both new opportunities and new challenges. Working with its NATO allies, the United States has sought to respond to these historic developments. The goal of the United States is an integrated, democratic Europe cooperating with the United States to keep the peace and promote prosperity. Many institutions will play a role in this integration, but NATO must be central to this process. At the January 1994 NATO Summit in Brussels and later at the December 1994 North Atlantic Council (NAC) Ministerial, the Alliance adopted a series of initiatives, including establishment of the Partnership for Peace and the launching of the process of NATO's gradual expansion. These steps were designed to consolidate transitions toward democratic societies and market economies in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union and to promote security throughout the region.
The Secretary of Defense has made building a successful defense and military partnership with Russia, Ukraine, and the other New Independent States of the former Soviet Union one of the highest priorities of the Department of Defense. It is clear, however, that this transition from the hostility of the Cold War will be neither instantaneous nor easy. A steady, continued engagement is called for which focuses on the important stake the United States and its allies have in building a constructive security relationship with the New Independent States. The United States will strive to manage differences with Russia to ensure that both nations' overriding common objectives take priority.
East Asia and the Pacific continue to grow as areas of importance to U.S. security and prosperity. This region has experienced unprecedented economic growth -- growth that increased U.S. trade in the region to $374 billion and supported 2.8 million American jobs in 1993 alone. This economic growth has been made possible by the security and stability provided to the region by the presence of U.S. military forces over the last 40 years. Security, open markets, and democracy go hand in hand in this region.
The United States has begun to share responsibility for regional security in the Asia Pacific more widely with its friends and allies, who provide host-nation support for U.S. forces and contribute to U.N. peace operations and international aid. Japan, for example, has become a leading source of international aid, and other Asian states contributed over 20,000 of the 72,000 U.N. peacekeepers deployed as of October 1994. Yet there is no substitute for a forward-based U.S. military presence, or for U.S. leadership like that which brought together a broad coalition to convince North Korea to relinquish its nuclear weapons program. The United States will remain active in this vital region.
The United States has enduring interests in the Middle East, especially pursuing a comprehensive breakthrough to Middle East peace, assuring the security of Israel and friendly Arab states, and maintaining the free flow of oil at reasonable prices. The United States will continue to work to extend the range of peace and stability, while implementing a strategy of dual containment of Iraq and Iran as long as those states pose a threat to U.S. interests, to other states in the region, and to their own citizens. In Southwest Asia, the United States will maintain its long-standing presence to cooperate with and assist those nations of the region that choose peace.
The overarching U.S. objectives in the Western hemisphere are to sustain regional stability and to increase regional cooperation. Such an environment will help assure that recent strides in democracy, free markets, and sustainable development can continue and that further progress can be made by the nations of the region. As in other regions, the Defense Department is working to enhance responsibility sharing by its hemispheric friends and allies. Contributions might include cost-sharing for U.S. deployments, the provision of non-U.S. forces to military contingencies, support for international development and democratization, and personnel or money for U.N. peace operations.
In Africa as well, there is fertile ground for promoting democracy, sustainable development, and conflict resolution. In particular, Administration policy seeks to identify and address the root causes of conflicts and disasters that affect U.S. national interests before they erupt. Such efforts include support for demobilization of oversized militaries, demining, effective peace operations, and strong indigenous conflict resolution facilities, including those of the Organization of African Unity and subregional organizations.
In all of these regions, broadening the dialogue on cost-sharing is essential for sustaining and adapting U.S. bilateral relationships. To reflect post-Cold War realities, a more comprehensive approach is needed that takes into account the wide variety of contributions that states can make toward regional and global security. In addition to providing host nation support for U.S. forces, contributions to international security can include maintaining capable military forces, assigning these forces to coalition missions like Operation Desert Storm or to U.N. peacekeeping, and providing political and financial support for such shared objectives as international economic development or dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
The Department of Defense uses the term responsibility sharing to refer to this broad range of contributions. It is important to consider such contributions in the context of various states' abilities to contribute, their comparative advantages in providing some kinds of contributions rather than others, and the security costs and risks that they themselves face. U.S. friends and allies have made increasingly important contributions to international security since the end of the Cold War, most notably in providing over 245,000 troops to the Operation Desert Storm coalition and $70 billion to the United States and other coalition members to help defray their expenses in the war. Yet there remains room for improvement toward still more equitable and cost-effective responsibility sharing. The Department of Defense is committed to working with Congress and with U.S. friends and allies toward this goal.
The Administration has also argued for the need for balance between defense and domestic priorities. While these priorities may compete in the short term, they are wholly complementary in the longer term. Robust U.S. military capabilities are needed to sustain U.S. international commitments; a strong economy is the essential basis for a strong defense posture. Similarly, the United States cannot be secure if its major trade and security partners are threatened with the specter of aggression or intimidation, nor can it be prosperous if international economic cooperation is breaking down.
So prudence dictates that U.S. strategy strikes a balance -- America's overall budget must invest in future prosperity and productivity while avoiding the instabilities and risks that would accompany attempts to withdraw from its security responsibilities in critical regions.
