The strategy strongly emphasizes looking beyond military might to diplomatic tools and international collaboration to achieve U.S. security objectives.

"Our armed forces will always be a cornerstone of our security but they must be complemented," the official strategy paper says. "Our security also depends upon diplomats who can act in every corner of the world; ... development experts who can strengthen governance and support human dignity; and intelligence and law enforcement that can unravel plots, strengthen justice systems and work seamlessly with other countries."

It stresses the need to strengthen international institutions and build new alliances with countries such as India, Brazil and China.

While acknowledging the shortcomings of international bodies, Obama told graduating cadets at West Point last week that "America has not succeeded by stepping out of the currents of cooperation."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton embraced the increased confidence in diplomacy. "We are no less powerful but we need to apply our power in different ways," she said Thursday.

That Obama would place such an emphasis on diplomatic power isn't surprising -- he has attempted this approach on other occasions during his 16 months in office. It does, however, posit that the U.S. military is no longer alone is the driving force of American policy abroad.

Congress mandates that each administration, within five months of inauguration, develop a national security strategy and update it annually, though that often isn't followed in practice. The Bush administration released two such strategies, in 2002 and 2006.

Obama's strategy departs significantly from the previous administration in tone as well as substance.

John Brennan, Obama adviser on homeland security and counter-terrorism, criticized the notion that the United States is engaged in what President George W. Bush called a war on terrorism. "Our enemy is not 'terrorism' because terrorism is but a tactic," Brennan said. "Our enemy is not 'terror' because terror is a state of mind and as Americans we refuse to live in fear."

"Our enemy is al-Qaida and its terrorist affiliates," he said, noting that calling U.S. enemies "jihadists" or "Islamists" is counterproductive.

In what could be seen as a jab at the Bush administration, the Obama strategy emphasizes universal human rights. The Bush administration was criticized for rejecting international standards in regard to the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay. The new strategy diverges from the notion of pre-emptive war Bush outlined in his 2002 strategy and reiterates Obama's promise to close the Guantanamo prison.

But despite the shift, Obama will build on elements of the Bush administration's national security framework. Bush's 2006 strategy, for example, acknowledged the need for international cooperation. "Recognizing the limits to what even a nation as powerful as the United States can achieve by itself," it read. "America cannot know peace, security, and prosperity by retreating from the world."

Juan Zarate, who was Bush's deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism, said that administration's efforts to work with international partners on issues such as nuclear nonproliferation are often overlooked.

"Though we may want a multilateral or multi-polar international security environment, the reality is that the international community still relies on American leadership -- which often may look like unilateralism but is really undertaken in a less traditional unilateral context," Zarate said.

Balancing a unilateral with a multilateral approach poses a challenge for the United States because other major international players often are reluctant to step up to the plate, Zarate said.

"We're struggling as a country to determine how to drive global solutions without being the world's police or the world's ambulance," he said.

Focus on innovation in America

Obama's strategy also stresses that the foundations of security have to be built at home through economic expansion as well as investments in education, science and technology.

"Our strategy starts by recognizing that our strength and influence abroad begins with the steps we take at home," Obama said in his opening letter to the document. "Simply put, we must see American innovation as a foundation of American power."

Strengthening the economy falls in line with legislation pushed by the administration, such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that pumped $787 billion into the American economy.

Obama made clear that the United States must look beyond the current wars to the world it wants to create.

"To get there, we must pursue a strategy of national renewal and global leadership -- a strategy that rebuilds the foundation of American strength and influence," Obama said.

earlier related report
New Obama security strategy dumps Bush anti-terror doctrine
Washington (AFP) May 27, 2010 - President Barack Obama unveiled a new national security strategy Thursday, replacing George W. Bush's "war on terror" doctrine with a sweeping blueprint for a world bristling with multiple threats.

Obama also put new constraints on the former president's concept of pre-emptive war and cited national security implications of economic meltdowns, global warming, cyberwarfare, nuclear proliferation and ethnic conflict.

"To succeed, we must face the world as it is," the document states, turning the page on Bush-era dreams of remaking the global order with American might and recognizing the increasing global engagement of Russia and the emergence of rising powers like China and India.

The document also contains warnings for Iran and North Korea, focuses on homegrown extremists who turn to Islamic radicalism in America and says the most serious threats to Americans are posed by nuclear proliferation.

The new doctrine illustrates an evolution of Obama's pro-engagement policies after 16 months in power, a period that brought the idealism of his election campaign into conflict with the harsh realities of geopolitics.

It describes a world thick with evolving threats and seeks to reframe US foreign policy after two bloody wars and a crippling global financial crisis.

It projects a tough, hard-nosed assessment of American interests and the use of US power, and lays out a dizzying array of threats from cyberwarfare to health epidemics to ethnic wars to inequality.

Obama commits to using the sweeping range of foreign policy tools, including diplomacy, economic renewal, development aid, military might and education.

It calls for tough engagement "without illusion" with US foes like Iran and North Korea, but warns they face deepening isolation if they continue to spurn US advances and do not bow to pressure to throw open their nuclear programs.

The document also preserves the US right to launch unilateral military action, but does so in more restrictive terms than those used by the former Bush administration.

It also seeks to widen the scope of US foreign policy, which became dominated by a doctrinaire "war on terror" following the September 11 attacks in 2001, and led to the war in Iraq, after the invasion of Afghanistan.

"We will always seek to delegitimize the use of terrorism and to isolate those who carry it out," said the document, the product of intense internal deliberations during the 16 months of the Obama administration.

"Yet this is not a global war against a tactic -- terrorism or a religion -- Islam.

"We are at war with a specific network, Al-Qaeda, and its terrorist affiliates who support efforts to attack the United States, our allies, and partners."

In his final national security strategy in 2006, Bush targeted terrorism as a concept more specifically, declaring boldly "the war on terror is not over."

Obama's document appears to water down the concept of preemptive war favored by the Bush administration, but preserves the option for a US president to deploy military might unilaterally.

It says Washington will "adhere to standards that govern the use of force."

"We will also outline a clear mandate and specific objectives and thoroughly consider the consequences -- intended and unintended -- of our actions."

For the first time, the new strategy makes combating homegrown extremists, "radicalized" on US soil, a key plank of security policy.

"Our best defenses against this threat are well informed and equipped families, local communities, and institutions," the document said.

"The Federal Government will invest in intelligence to understand this threat and expand community engagement and development programs to empower local communities."

The 52-page strategy however encompasses a much wider reach than the campaign against extremism which has defined US foreign policy since the September 11 attacks.

It sets out a platform for robust engagement, the maintenance of the US military edge and wide social diplomacy and development assistance.

"Our long-term security will not come from our ability to instill fear in other peoples but through our capacity to speak to their hopes," Obama said in a message introducing the new strategy.

The strategy lists a set of comprehensive threats facing the United States, beginning with the most grave -- the threat of weapons of mass destruction, especially nuclear weapons.

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