Page 2 of 2 Obama and the counter-insurgency era
By Anthony Fenton
pursuit of shared policy goals." USAID also notes in the policy how its efforts
are "a key element of any successful ... counter-insurgency effort". [10]
Likewise, the touchstone US Government Counter-insurgency Guide had its signing
ceremony on January 13. The three signatories were USAID administrator
Henrietta Fore, Secretary of Defense Gates, and outgoing secretary of state
Rice. In the Guide's preface, State Department Counselor, and Project for a New
American Century signatory Eliot A Cohen asserts that "insurgency will be a
large and growing element of the security challenges faced by the Unites States
in the 21st century". The
COIN Guide is to prepare key government agencies for the "near certainty" that
the US will be engaged in COIN [counter-insurgency] operations "during the
decades to come". [11]
Other key responsibilities under DoDD 3000.07 were given to the undersecretary
for defense policy (USD-P), a position that is now held by Michele A Flournoy,
the former president of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
think-tank. When it was announced that Flournoy would become USD-P, the
Washington Independent's Spencer Ackerman referred to her appointment as "a
victory for the coterie of counter-insurgency thinkers that the think-tank
employs and champions". [12]
In addition to heading CNAS, Flournoy was, together with Jones, Blair, and Nye,
a member of the "Guiding Coalition" of another key think-tank close to the
Obama administration, the Project for National Security Reform (PNSR).
At the December 1 event announcing his appointment, Jones stressed how
"National Security in the 21st century comprises a portfolio which includes all
elements of national power and influence working in coordination and harmony
towards the desired goal of keeping our nation safe."
This statement echoed recommendations that would be made only two days later by
the PNSR in its bi-partisan report, "Forging a New Shield". The report's main
recommendation is that "a new national security system in which agencies work
together on joint assignments and policy implementation in responding to crises
and managing day-to-day national security affairs".
Modeled on and led by one of key architects of the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Act,
which restructured the US military bringing all of the forces under one
umbrella for the first time, the PNSR seeks to similarly alter the national
security apparatus of the US in order that the "whole of government" can more
cohesively wage global counter-insurgency.
The PNSR grew out of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, the same
agency that coordinated the Iraq Study Group and the lower-profile Afghanistan
Study Group. The latter was headed by Jones. One of its key recommendations,
that the US increase the number of troops in Afghanistan, began to be adopted
by the Bush administration and was a key foreign policy plank of Obama's
electoral campaign. Upon taking office, Obama quickly implemented another ASG
recommendation by naming Richard Holbrooke as his special advisor on
Afghanistan and Pakistan. [13]
On January 13, 2009, PNSR announced that they had received $4 million from
Congress via the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the
Department of Defense. Both ODNI, led by former PNSR co-chair Dennis Blair, and
the DoD "will oversee execution of the agreement". [14]
The close proximity of the PNSR to the new administration is instructive for
another important reason.
In 2006, army General David Petraeus and Marine Lieutenant General James Mattis
established the Counter-insurgency (COIN) Center at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas,
"to facilitate the development of a culture that enables us to more effectively
adapt as a whole government when called upon to deal with future COIN or
COIN-like threats". [15]
According to the COIN Center's official pamphlet, its purpose is "to better
educate and train all US ground forces on the principles and practices of
counter-insurgency, and to better integrate COIN efforts among the services".
Among members of the COIN Center's "community of interest" listed on its
website, is the PNSR. Additionally, in its pamphlet, the COIN Center lists both
a current program and a "near term initiative" that it is collaborating on with
the PNSR. It remains to be seen what role exactly the PNSR will play with the
COIN Center. One clue is found in the COIN Center pamphlet which states:
The
analytical construct the COIN Center uses for continued analysis of distributed
responsibility for issues in a COIN environment is the acronym "DDD" or the
"3Ds": Diplomacy (State); Development (USAID); and Defense (DoD)." [16]
That PNSR has a shared emphasis on the interagency, or 3D, process, which may
be an indication of collaborative efforts to watch for.
One reason to be wary of the commitment to "irregular warfare" is that it
reflects a warning issued recently by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Michael Mullen, that US foreign policy is "too militarized". Although the lip
service paid to "smart power" might be seen to indicate a balancing effect
toward civilian influence over foreign policy, the appointment of retired
military and intelligence figures to key civilian posts calls this into
question. [17]
Since the Obama administration campaigned on the continuity of
counter-insurgency and irregular war as key elements of US power projection
under his administration, it is likely that these policies will attain a level
of popular support not experienced by the Bush administration, and will see
little critical scrutiny by the media. The challenge will be to shed light on
and critically examine these policies as they manifest in any number of
settings around the world in the days to come.
Anthony Fenton is an independent researcher and journalist based near
Vancouver, Canada. He is currently co-writing a book on Canadian-US post-9/11
foreign policy integration and transformation, and can be reached at fenton@shaw.ca.
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