Time for a New NSC-68?

The US Naval Institute blog has an excellent post that makes the case for an enduring new capstone policy for the Long War, in much the same way that NSC-68 served as the capstone policy for the Cold War through several consecutive Democratic and Republican administrations.

Despite campaign rhetoric to the contrary, many of the Bush administration's policies on the Long War have been continued by the Obama administration and, some would say, are being executed even more effectively. This suggests that these policies are parts of national grand strategy in the early 21st century that go beyond traditional partisan divisions (excluding the extreme left).

The following quote sums it up well:

NSC-68 presents Soviet Russia as an enemy having a “fanatical faith… antithetical to America”, a phrase that rings true of the radical Muslims who oppose the United States and the West. The threat, in all its forms, is not going away any time soon. Like the Soviet threat, we must be prepared for a decades-long struggle against it. Also like the Soviets, radical Muslim fundamentalism is not merely a military threat, with nations and groups on the periphery whose dislike for America and Western society will cause them to look for economic opportunities in the problems and threats that the fundamentalists pose to us. Nor, like the Soviets, is it our only threat. But it is, for the near future, our gravest.

By: Guardian