American National Security Policy

LTC USA (Ret.) John T. Fishel, Lecturer in the College of International Studies at the University of Oklahoma, is Professor Emeritus from the National Defense University. He served 28 years as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army both active and reserve and was chief of the Policy and Strategy Division of the Policy, Strategy & Programs Directorate of the U.S. Southern Command, Chief of Research and Assessments of the Small Wars Operations Research Directorate (SWORD), and Deputy Chief of the US Forces Liaison Group.

• Forward by Ambassador Edwin G. CorrAcknowledgementsPrefacePart I: A Touch of TheoryChapter 1. A Practitioners Guide to RealismPart II: The Practitioners’ TextbookChapter 2. Legal AuthoritiesChapter 3. National Security OrganizationsChapter 4. The National Security Council Process Chapter 5. Defense Planning SystemsPart III: The CasesChapter 6. Panama: National Security Policy from BelowChapter 7. “I Love it When a Plan Comes Together”Chapter 8. Adventures in Peace Enforcement: The Somalia TragedyChapter 9. The “Intervasion” of HaitiChapter 10. “Some Damned Foolish Thing in the Balkans”Chapter 11. 9/11 and the Invasion of AfghanistanChapter 12. Iraq: Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory and Victory From the Jaws of DefeatChapter 13. The Afghanistan Surge: Obama’s Finest Hour?Part IV: Some ConclusionsChapter 14. How National Security Policy Is Really Made: Lessons From the CasesBibliography

American National Security Policy should be read by anyone wanting to be a United States national security professional, by anyone who wants to understand how United States national security policy is formulated, and especially by public policy faculty charged with teaching future national security practitioners. These faculty should use this book in their classes. Superbly organized and clearly written, American National Security Policy is a practitioners’ guide to the subject. It explains succinctly how ideas shape policy makers’ world views and then proceeds to describe clearly each of the elements of the United States national security policy-making process. It also contains a varied and fascinating set of cases, in some of which the author was a direct participant, to illustrate points in a manner useful for future practitioners. Readers seeking fiction or fantasy about United States national security policy should avoid this book. Those compelled by facts should give it their full attention.