U.S. Domestic and National Security Agendas: Into the Twenty-First Century

Adda B. Bozeman

The study of domestic and national security agendas must begin with a number of general propositions on the nature of political-social systems and strategic cultures. First, the inner order of a politically unified society is rooted in the belief systems, values, norms, and institutions around which generations have rallied in shared understandings of life's multiple demands. (In my language we are dealing here with the domain of culture, which has not ceased springing surprise developments even in our century when culture was harshly subdued in many places by totalitarian ideologies.)

Second, this inner order which is based on culture (and/or ideology) sustained by the governmental system is represented and protected in the outer world by foreign policies that include appropriate military programs.

Third, no politically organized society--be it a state or a nonstate entity-- can survive intact unless its internal and external policies or agendas are closely linked in an overall commitment to preserve and defend the community's identity, integrity, and security.

Fourth, such a linkage is developed best when the state's vital interests at home and abroad are set out unequivocally in a comprehensive, long- range strategic doctrine or design.

Fifth, the basic requirements for conceptualizing and fashioning such a strategic master plan are knowledge of the national self, warts and all; an equally objective understanding of "other" in the world environment; and a disciplined commitment to think strategically about the interactions between internal and external affairs of state, thus avoiding contradictions.

The last axiom requires the following addendum:

Comparative studies indicate that meaningful understandings cannot be reached and strategic designs cannot be constructed, deciphered, or deconstructed unless one knows that each morally, culturally, or ideologically unified political society has its own religious or philosophical persuasion and

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