Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 07/2014

Security First: A Strategy for Defending America

Sharon Burke, Dr. Elaine C. Kamarck, William Galston

May 2007

Third Way

Abstract

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."