Security First: A Strategy for Defending America

SUMMARY

A report summarizing the Bush failures on national security and offering a new path forward for America’s next leaders.

This study provides a review of the current threats that America faces, tracing the path that the Bush Administration took after 9-11 to arrive at our current predicament in Iraq and elsewhere. The authors lay out the four concentric layers of threats and responsibilities facing America in this new century: al Qaeda and its allies; nuclear proliferation; US dependence on foreign energy; and threats to the “global commons”.

This reordering of security priorities points to “organizational changes needed to reform our governing institutions to meet the challenges we face now and in the decades to come.” These include:

• Creating a 21st century military
• Reforming the intelligence community
• Overhauling homeland security
• Taking on state building
• Promoting democracy
• Building new alliance structures

To read this Report, open the attached PDF