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Ex-CMC offers glimpse at security policy

In his first major public address, White House National Security Advisor James Jones described the Obama administration’s still-evolving foreign policy approach as one that will be proactive while reaching out to other nations.

On issues such as the proliferation of the world’s most deadly weapons to how Washington should respond to North Korea’s alleged nuclear test, the former Marine Corps commandant made clear in Wednesday’s speech that President Barack Obama intends to avoid the go-it-alone approaches often employed by the Bush administration.

For instance, after closely examining what leaders in Washington, Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi are saying about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, Jones told an audience in Washington he sees a consensus forming.

The “body politic of the world [has concluded] that North Korea and Iran should not be permitted to have such weapons,” he said.

The Obama national security team is talking with leaders in Moscow to “get their input” on the issue, Jones said — “and that’s new.”

The Obama administration is not limiting its outreach to traditional American allies, he said. Administration officials, he said, also are “trying to make friends out of adversaries.”

The White House is wrapping up an unprecedented national cyber security review. Jones said he expects Obama “later this week” to announce a new cyber plan.

Jones also said it should be clear “in about a year” whether the administration’s approach for the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater will work.

He said he is encouraged by the Pakistani government’s recent actions to step up efforts to combat advances inside the nation’s borders by Taliban forces and their Islamic extremist partners.

Success there, Jones said, will depend on whether Washington and its allies can figure out how to do things that will enhance “security, economic development and the rule of law … all at once.”

Jones also described his effort to overhaul the National Security Council, saying he is mostly pleased with the organizational structure he has put in place.

His goal in remaking the NSC structure, he said, was to create an organization that is “more agile” and able to react to multiple global crises.

Obama, he said, just this week formally approved Jones’ plan to merge the NSC and the White House Homeland Security Council, which was created after the 9/11 attacks.

He has put in place several levels of NSC decision-making, including lower-level working groups, deputies committees, principles meetings, and then full NSC sessions chaired by Obama.

Jones wants the NSC to be more forward-looking, able to “think six months or eight months out” in order to “see things that are developing” in order to avoid “another Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Some experts in late 2008 and early 2009 who were quoted in media reports as Obama put together his national security team wondered whether the key players would be able to coexist and collaborate effectively. Some called them a team of rivals, which Jones touched on during his speech.

At the “principles level,” things have been professional and smooth, Jones said. But there is a team of rivals within the national security apparatus — it “exists at other levels, not the principles level,” he quipped with a chuckle.

Jones said there still is “a lot of work to do” as NSC officials “continue to refine the organization.” For instance, he said, “the way we arrive at decisions is still arduous and painful.”