A National Strategic Narrative
A National Strategic Narrative is a United States strategy document.
Background
In 2009, during a strategy brief to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Captain Wayne Porter noted the lack of a United States grand strategy, which could act as a guide or inspiration for all strategies of the US government. Admiral Michael Mullen, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, charged Captain Porter with writing such a grand strategy. Concurrently, Colonel Mark "Puck" Mykleby and the strategy team at USSOCOM were developing some of the baseline concepts that are reflected in the Narrative. The two strategists, Porter and Mykleby, teamed up and worked for years towards developing such a grand strategy. The product was published on April 8, 2011, by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The 15 page article was titled A National Strategic Narrative by Mr. Y. Included in the 15 pages is a preface by Anne-Marie Slaughter, Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University.Summary
The preface provides a frame of reference and covers key themes of the article. Slaughter leads the reader from the strategic narrative of the Cold War which "was that the United States was the leader of the free world against the communist world; that we would invest in containing the Soviet Union and limiting its expansion while building a dynamic economy and as just, and prosperous a society as possible". She then sums up the proposed strategic narrative of the United States of the 21st century, in which "we want to become the strongest competitor and most influential player in a deeply inter-connected global system, which requires that we invest less in defense and more in sustainable prosperity and the tools of effective global engagement". Slaughter goes on to discuss the five major transitions in the global system that the Narrative responds to. They are: 1) From control in a closed system to credible influence in an open system. 2) From containment to sustainment. 3) From deterrence and defense to civilian engagement and competition. 4) From zero sum to positive sum global politics/economics. 5) From national security to national prosperity and security.The Narrative itself begins with stating the intent of the document and an overview of the themes to be discussed, including actionable solutions. The body of the article is divided into sections, which are titled as follows: From Containment to Sustainment: Control to Credible Influence, Our Values and Enduring National Interest, Our Three Investment Priorities, Fair Competition and Deterrence, A Strategic Ecology, Closing the “Say-do” Gap - the Negative Aspects of “Binning", Credible Influence in a Strategic Ecosystem, Opportunities beyond Threat and Risk, A National Prosperity and Security Act, and A Beacon of Hope, a Pathway of Promise. The authors determine that the enduring national interests are prosperity and security, which are underpinned, empowered and constrained by American values. An ultimately positive and nonpartisan focus on opportunity and downplaying the centrality of risks and threats in strategic policy making, has resonated with a wider and wider audience in America and abroad.