Genuine National Security

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This strategy ties into Lovins? three-pronged approach to protecting Americans from attack:

• Conflict avoidance/prevention. Lovins stresses ?justice, hope, transparency, tolerance, and honest government? as the most cost-effective ways to maintain our national security?a strategey he calls ?presponse.? By sincerely promoting these values around the world, the United States can prevent regional conflicts, which often threaten American interests. War and terrorism can also be prevented by more effective use of global resources, which can help people attain a decent life without consuming massive amounts of contested commodities such as fossil fuels and fresh water.
• Conflict resolution. If conflict cannot be avoided, the United States must be more willing to use international avenues of mediation, such as the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, to prevent armed hostilities.
• Nonprovocative defense. Lovins points to Sweden?s military as a model of a powerful but strictly defensive force. Its artillery cannot be fired beyond Sweden?s territorial waters, its aircraft are designed for short-range deployment, and its radio frequencies are incompatible with those of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. ?They?ve sought to make Sweden a country you don?t want to attack,? Lovins explains. ?This approach can ultimately create a [situation where] each side?s defense is stronger than the other side?s offense.?

Lovins admits that such a defensive approach would not stop a small-scale terrorist strike. Of course, neither would a national missile defense system. But taken together, a national defense strategy that embraces humanitarian aid, more effective use of resources, conflict mediation, and a powerful defense would certainly take the United States a lot further down the road toward true security than our current strategy, which promises nothing but an endless war against an endless succession of enemies.

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