National security policy: the decision making process
- New Delhi Transasia Publishers 1986
- xiii, 311 p.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, it has become obvious that security issues constitute the very core of international relations, as far as small and medium-strength states are concerned, no less than the super powers themselves. This factor has been present throughout recorded history, of course, but technology, to mention just one aspect, has made the realiza tion of the centrality of security affairs unavoidable. In the United States, successive administrations have striven to fashion a coherent national security policy, based upon rational design and consist ency of purpose) For the greater part of the present century, each President has been compelled to operate within a decision-making process characterized by increasing complexities, both with respect to the number of bureaucratic units-not to mention the amount of personnel involved-and the seemingly discrete factors that must be considered when dealing with policy choices. Moreover, in our country, this process confronts a structure of government that, on the one hand, confers upon the President the position of Commander in Chief of the armed forces, as well as the function of chief diplomat and final arbiter on national security affairs; at the same time, the President shares constitutional authority with the Congress. Indeed, the Constitution devotes many more lines to congressional competence in matters clearly related to security than it does to the powers of the President in that area.