Obama to issue a new statement of US national security strategy
President Obama will formally present a new national security strategy early next year, identifying his foreign policy priorities for the remainder of his time in office, the White House said Friday.
The new policy document will be the second of Obama's administration and will likely update the previous one, released in May 2010, in several important areas. Those include policies for fighting the next phase of the war against al-Qaeda, the shift of national security resources to Asia and a plan to manage declining defense budgets amid fiscal strain.
The administration will present another strategy paper on how it intends to achieve the policy ambitions to be outlined in the new national security doctrine sometime in the spring, Obama told Congress in a letter made public Friday.
The new strategy is being drafted at a time when Obama continues to face questions over his counterterrorism policy, particularly the use of drones in Afghanistan and Pakistan as the US military withdraws from that region.
Disclosures over the scope of the National Security Agency s eavesdropping practices have also placed Obama at odds with some foreign leaders, including US allies, and prompted him to pledge reforms in the way intelligence gathering is conducted.
The new security strategy will likely reflect some of those proposals and expand on administration plans in the Asia-Pacific region as the country shifts from a war footing in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to new diplomatic and economic initiatives.
The National Security Strategy document falls under a 1986 law requiring the president to present Congress with an annual strategic statement. Most administrations have been inconsistent in meeting that obligation. George W. Bush, for example, issued only two during his eight years in office.
The policy statement sets administration priorities inside the government and communicates them to Congress, the American public and the world. It also is intended as a framework for strategy documents produced by other parts of the government, including the Pentagon s national defense strategy.
Obama s first National Security Strategy ran 52 pages and set out a course for ending the US military involvement in Iraq.
Although the strategy asserted America s central role in the world, it also warned that when we overuse our military might, or fail to invest in or deploy complementary tools, or act without partners, then our military is overstretched.
Americans bear a greater burden, and our leadership around the world is too narrowly identified with military forces, the document reads. It lists as the country's enduring national interests security, prosperity, values and international order.
In recent months, Obama has outlined some of his foreign policy priorities for the rest of his second term, telling the UN General Assembly in September that in the Middle East he would focus on securing a nuclear agreement with Iran and peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
That emphasis will likely be reflected in the updated strategy document, which will also likely look beyond the official conclusion of US combat operations in Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
據美國《華盛頓郵報》報道，白宮11月29號稱，奧巴馬總統將于2014年初正式呈報一份新的《新國家安全戰略》，明確他在位所剩時間內外交政策的重點。
這份新的政策文件將會是奧巴馬政府發布的第二份此類文件，在幾個重要問題上很可能是第一份(發布于2010年5月份)的修改版。這些重要問題涵蓋下一個階段同基地組織之間的戰爭、向亞洲轉移國家安全資源以及在財政壓力下管理縮減的國防預算計劃。
在11月29日公布的一份信件中，奧巴馬告訴國會，其政府將于2014年春季呈報另一份戰略文件，文件將詳述如何實現在《新國家安全戰略》中提出的政策目標。
奧巴馬擬定這份政策文件的同時，也正是面臨外界對他反恐政策的質疑，特別是隨著美國軍隊從阿富汗和巴基斯坦撤軍，美國在這些地方使用無人飛機事件。
美國國家安全局竊聽對象行為的范圍遭披露后，奧巴馬也與包括美國盟友在內的一些外國領導者產生了分歧，這促使他承諾改革信息情報收集方式。
2001年9月11日恐怖襲擊事件讓美國在隨后的十年內都處于戰備狀態，隨著美國從戰備狀態轉入新外交和經濟提案，《新國家安全戰略》很可能會體現這些提案中的某些舉措，并詳述政府在亞太地區的計劃。
《國家安全戰略》是根據1986年的一部法律制訂的。該法律要求美國總統必須每年呈報給國會一份年度政策聲明。幾乎各屆政府都沒履行這項職責。比如喬治 W 布什總統在位八年就只發布兩份。
政策聲明為政府內部劃定施政重點，并把這些重點傳達給國會、美國民眾以及整個世界。這項政策聲明也能作為其他政府部門擬定的政策文件框架，包括五角大樓國防戰略。
奧巴馬第一份《國家安全戰略》總共52頁，里面闡明美國結束軍事介入伊拉克的過程。
雖然該戰略宣稱美國在世界扮演核心角色，同時也提醒 我們若是濫用軍事力量，或是無力投資或部署輔助性工具，亦或者沒有協同盟友單獨行動的話，那我們軍隊戰線就太長了 。
文件還寫道： (那樣的話)美國就會承受更大的壓力，如果把我們在世界范圍的領導等同于軍事力量領導，那就太狹隘了。 文件羅列出美國 經久不衰的國家利益 ：安全、繁榮、價值觀和國際秩序。
最近幾個月，奧巴馬擬出連任期剩下這段時間內他的外交政策重點。在九月份召開的聯合國大會上，奧巴馬稱他將把重點放在和伊朗達成核協議、以及與以色列人和巴基斯坦人達成和平協議上。
他強調的這些重點很有可能出現在修改版的《新國家安全戰略》。這份新戰略也有望涵蓋2014年底在阿富汗正式結束美國作戰行動的相關事宜。