Advice for the Next President

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With complex issues of national security and foreign affairs on the horizon, the next president and Congress must replace piecemeal reactions with a discriminating, forward-looking perspective. To do so, they need to define national interests, devise appropriate policy, and build public support for the priorities, the policies, and the actions that flow from them.

A few security concerns, each in need of a fresh infusion of energy, form the core around which American policy should be reworked to meet evolving conditions. These priorities are cooperative relationships with Russia, China, and America's allies and a sharp reduction in nuclear weapons.

Additional interests, likewise carrying with them governmental responsibility to act, range from prevention of nuclear proliferation in Iraq or Iran to suppression of genocide in the Balkans, terrorism from Libya, or traffic in drugs from Colombia and Mexico. Beyond these immediate security issues are still further interests, such as discouraging human rights violations abroad, preventing violent conflict in areas of limited strategic significance, and encouraging democracy for its own sake.

Although viewed as intrinsically desirable, these latter interests have limited effect on American security and well-being. It is useful then to "tier" U.S. interests according to the likely need for using force and positioning force in forward areas. For lesser-tier challenges, the United States needs the effective collaboration that stems from strong alliances, regional mechanisms, and U.N. forces.

Fortunately, a collaborative network of Cold War institutions, policies, and commitments retains its value. These all focus U.S. interests while adapting themselves to new needs and objectives and drawing in former adversaries. Foremost among these institutions are NATO, U.S. treaties with Japan and South Korea, the United Nations, and an array of international economic institutions. The nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) are essential to reducing nuclear arsenals to the lowest level that can be reliably verified. U.S. policy should aim to stem further proliferation and retain only enough nuclear weapons to dissuade their use or threatened use by others.