Jones Previews Forthcoming National Security Strategy

Speaking of Jim Jones, President Obama’s national security adviser, his speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy last night also offered an early glimpse of the administration’s long-awaited National Security Strategy. (I hear it’s going to actually come out the week after next, but the broad contours have been in place for a while.) Longtime Obama-watchers won’t really find it surprising to hear what Jones outlined:

In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing a new National Security Strategy that formalizes the President’s approach—an approach that is rooted in and guided by our national security interests. These interests are clear and enduring.

· Security—we have an enduring interest in the security of the United States, our citizens and U.S. allies and partners;

· Prosperity—we have an enduring interest in a strong, innovative and growing U.S. economy in an open international economic system that promotes opportunity and prosperity;

· Values— we have an enduring interest is upholding universal values, at home and around the world; and,

· International Order—we have an enduring interest in an international order advanced by U.S. leadership that promotes peace, security and opportunity through stronger cooperation to meet global challenges.

Security, prosperity, universal values, and an international order advanced by American leadership—these are the interests that the President and his Administration are working to advance around the world every day, including in the Middle East.

“An international order advanced by American leadership” is a term you can expect to hear a lot. Contrast all this with the 2002 National Security Strategy from President Bush. That one was about how the terms of the international system — particularly the stuff about not invading other countries unless attacked — don’t necessarily apply to America.

The Pentagon’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review also nodded in the direction of the National Security Strategy, and the broad contours of what the QDR contained on the subject align pretty closely with what Jones detailed yesterday.