Cultivating Strategic Thinking: The Eisenhower Model.

摘要

Recent commentary on the apparent inability of the United States to formulate a clear, consistent grand strategy evokes the question whether such an undertaking is possible for a democracy like the United States. This article examines the National Security Council (NSC) mechanism of the Eisenhower administration. In contrast to the general belief that the Eisenhower NSC was a bureaucratic paper mill, presided over by an affable but phlegmatic president, the reality is that the organization was dynamic and industrious. Astoundingly, the Eisenhower Presidency was unique in its approach to formulating national security policy and the only administration to publish a comprehensive basic national security policy. In the September 2011 issue of ARMY Magazine, James M. Dubik, Lieutenant General (USA Retired) in his article, A National Strategic Learning Disability. expressed deep concern regarding a rather incoherent US national security strategy. In a similar vein, Professor Rosa Brooks in the 23 January 2012 edition of Foreign Policy, Obama Needs a Grand Strategy, declared the . . . 2010 National Security Strategy (NSS) is many things press release, public relations statement, laundry list of laudable aspirations grand strategy it ain't. Though their criticisms are valid, they miss the more important issue. Prior to assuming office, very few presidents are educated or experienced in the art and science of formulating grand strategy, and more soberly, the National Security Council mechanism is not optimized towards helping them think strategically. In short, a fundamental inability to cultivate strategic thinking has plagued the National Security Council for decades, so this is not a new phenomenon.