The strongest impression I get from reading our major news media is their lack of curiosity. If they were to see an elephant walking down Constitution Avenue, they would remark briefly about it before returning to more important things. The latest jokes about Palin’s children, or Michelle Obama’s sleeveless dresses.
One of the most interesting non-stories is the rise of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Established in February 2007, it rapidly became a major player in the military policy debate. What supporters have lifted it so quickly to such prominence? What does this tell us about Obama’s national security plans? (Note: The CNAS website lists the organizations that support it (here), but of course with no indications of the individuals who pull the strings.}
Consider this article about their June conference Striking a Balance: ”One-Sided COIN – The military-industrial complex surges Washington“, Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, The American Conservative, 1 August 2009. This is real reporting, preparing the reader to understand future news. Excerpt:
You know it’s not going to be a typical Washington think-tank event when, upon entering the gilded doors of the Willard InterContinental Hotel, you are greeted by a peppy female soldier in an Army service uniform bedecked with medals. “Welcome, are you here for CNAS?”
For the Center for a New American Security, the June 11 annual meeting was about doing things big — broadcasting to the swelling Washington national-security establishment that CNAS is a major player; that there is but a sliver of daylight between its civilian-policy mission and that of the U.S. military. Both are working symbiotically to make their vision the only remedy for the young Obama administration’s foreign-policy challenges.
Here was a heady mix of Army brass, Navy officers in their starched whites, and soldiers in digital camo networking among the dark suits and smart skirts of the civilian elite. Defense contractors, lobbyists, analysts, journalists, administration reps, Hill staff—1,400 of the “best and brightest,” seeing and being seen.
Gen. David Petraeus—no one could have better sanctified this event save Obama himself—stepped to the dais. He called CNAS “a true force.” … In June 2007, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stood on the same platform, delivering the keynote speech at CNAS’s glittering launch. There the center planted its first marker and was unofficially identified as Clinton’s national security team in waiting. …
At the top {of CNAS} is retired Lt. Col. John A. Nagl, who served in the Gulf War and Iraq before working directly for Donald Rumsfeld at the Pentagon. … Then there’s the more nuanced but equally ubiquitous David Kilcullen …
That just sets the stage. The real story is the number of CNAS associates in Obama’s national security apparatus, all gung ho for lots of foreign wars. Were you expecting change? Think about that when reading this list…
- {CNAS co- founder Michele Flournoy} was scooped up for President-elect Obama’s transition team. She later left CNAS for Doug Feith’s old position at the Pentagon.
- Fellow co-founder Kurt Campbell should soon be confirmed as Assistant Secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs.
- Earlier in June, Price Floyd, the group’s director of external affairs, became Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Defense.
- CNAS senior vice president and director of studies James N. Miller left to work as Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.
- {CNAS co- founder} Colin Kahl is now Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East,
- while former fellow Shawn Brimley is a special advisor to Flournoy.
- {CNAS Fellow} Vikram Singh serves as special adviser to Flournoy for Afghanistan-Pakistan.
- Another former fellow, Eric Pierce, is now Deputy Chief for Legislative Affairs at DoD, and
- CNAS researcher Alice Hunt has become Flournoy’s special assistant.
- Over at the State Department, Campbell joins former CNAS senior fellow Derek Chollet, now Deputy Director for Policy Planning, and
- former CNAS CFO Nate Tibbits, who heads national security for the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.
Having staffed up the government for the next generation of foreign wars, CNAS prepares to provide supporting agitprop.
While CNAS influences policy from the inside, filling the gaps back at its Pennsylvania Avenue offices has not been difficult. As Obama leans further on the military to resolve challenges overseas, the group has accordingly become top heavy with active-duty and retired military “COINdinistas.” During the annual meeting, it was announced that Nathaniel Fick, a 32-year-old Marine Corps veteran who wrote One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Corps Officer, would take Campbell’s place as CNAS’s chief executive officer.
He joins Nagl in leading a hatch of “new generation” war wonks, ranging from active-duty fellows like Lt. Col. Jim Crider and veterans like retired Army Capt. Andrew Exum—whose blog, Abu Muqawama, is the go-to for the COIN set—to court scribes like Tom Ricks, whose panegyrics to Petraeus and Gen. Raymond Odierno transformed him from Washington Post war correspondent to war wonk and COIN operator.
Previous posts about the CNAS conference:
- A wonderful discussion about the American Empire, 24 June 2009
- “Striking a Balance: A New American Security”, 1 July 2009
About Team Obama
- Secretary Gates would be a hero – if speeches could reform DoD, 6 May 2008
- I was wrong about SecDef Gates – here is a more accurate view of him, 7 May 2008
- Biden’s gaffes are a threat to American’s complacency!, 13 September 2008
- Obama’s national security team: I hope you didn’t really believe in change?, 26 November 2008
- Obama’s cabinet are the best and brightest (here we go, again), 20 February 2009
- The media rolls over and plays dead for Obama, as it does for all new Presidents (Democrats only, of course), 19 February 2009
Afterword
Please share your comments by posting below. Per the FM site’s Comment Policy, please make them brief (250 words max), civil, and relevant to this post. Or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).
For information about this site see the About page, at the top of the right-side menu bar.
For more information from the FM site
To read other articles about these things, see the FM reference page on the right side menu bar. Of esp interest these days:
- About America’s national defence strategy and machinery
- About Iraq & Sub-continent Wars – my articles
- About Iraq & Sub-continent Wars – studies & reports
Here are almost complete directories of the online works by two of these speakers:
- The Essential 4GW reading list: David Kilcullen
- The Essential 4GW reading list: John Nagl
- Andrew Bacevich’s work
