The Dangers of False National Security Narratives

About the lecture: When we accept certain narratives on which national security policy rests, and those narratives are incorrect, we get ourselves into serious trouble. One is reminded about a debate in the British parliament between Winston Churchill and Mr. Chamberlain, with the latter arguing that rearming Britain to take on Germany would probably result in a diminution of free trade with Nazi Germany. To which Winston Churchill said, “shouldn’t that be the idea?” The United States in 1969-70 adopted detente and peaceful coexistence as descriptors of American security policy. At the end of World War II, we adopted the idea of containment of the USSR. We also adopted “Vietnam” to conjure up a quagmire to describe the feared end result of the use of American military force. Today, we have adopted “peaceful rise“ as the way to describe the growing military and economic strength of China; we have long held out the idea that a successful foreign policy in the Middle East had to go through the “peace process”; and successful response to 9-11 required the USA to win the “global war on terror or GWOT”. This lecture will examine how such narratives were developed and what political forces such narratives served. This lecture will also explore each of these narratives and what dead ends they led us to reach, or are still leading us, and compare them to President Reagan’s “peace through strength” strategy. We will also discuss the current administration’s policy with respect to China, the Middle East, and Russia/NATO. Reagan’s peace through strength is often described —wrongly—as no more than simple bullying—a narrative we will also address. Part of this discussion will include my own part in these foreign policy fights over the 1975-2020 period. About the speaker: Mr. Peter Huessy is President of his own defense consulting firm, GeoStrategic Analysis, founded in 1981, and since 2016, Director of Strategic Deterrent Studies at the Mitchell Institute on Aerospace Studies. He was the senior defense consultant at the