A New National Security Plan

Last week, the Obama administration released its first National Security Plan, and it largely comes as a rebuke of Bush administration security policies.

More importantly to the topic of this class, however, is the stark absence of any mention of the word "Islamic," in favor of, "violent extremism." It is yet another attempt by Obama to redefine the enemy the United States faces in the twenty first century, and it is an attempt to assuage diplomatic relations still reeling from the previous eight years. Yet, the new National Security Strategy does not attempt to define exactly what violent extremism is, either, and only acknowledge that the gravest threat would be for one of these extremists to obtain a weapon of mass destruction. This lack of definition does of course leave the United States open to pursue the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in a much broader manner than by specifically naming targets, but one wonders if "violent extremism," does disservice to the manner of the threat we are facing.