Way to enhance security is to improve other dimensions of security

Dr. Keith C. Simmonds
My View

It is quite normal for the typical American to think about national security in the context of military preparedness. That is, the mightier we feel, militarily, the more secure we think we are as a country. This is conventional thinking at its best, but patently false if we are looking toward the future.

The future context of national security will be sharply different from the one in which it now resides. The future context will have to emphasize four equally important dimensions: socio-economic security, cultural tolerance, moral integrity, and military might. This is the point of this article that seems so atypical of a Black History month article. But the thrust of this piece is in direct keeping with one of the roles of African Americans in this society, and also the reality of African American history in the context of American history.

Indeed, African Americans have always played critical roles in ensuring this nation’s security, and during this month we ought to remind ourselves, and the nation of this fact. It has also been the essence of the African American struggle for fairness, justice and societal decency to alert the nation as a whole that it cannot survive if it fails to live up to its promise of equality for all. In this sense the African American struggle has been the conscience of America.

The message has been that in spite of its military might, the country does not have an enduring future of leadership in the family of nations. Likewise, the women’s movement, also the conscience of America, has over the past 40 years been sending the message to American society, that if it refuses to live up to its principles of fairness and equality, the country could not sustain its moral integrity and therefore endangers its economic security.

Hispanics and other cultural groups in the country are no less adamant that this country must live up to its moral claims failing which, its claim as a melting pot would be morally empty and, in fact, bankrupt. Cultural tolerance of all peoples, if not genuine acceptance of each other, has to be a conscious daily effort, of learning how to “live and let live.” It would be sheer folly to do otherwise, especially since the growing Hispanic population of this country along with the African American population are transforming this country from a nation of majority Europeans to a majority of minorities- Hispanics, Africans, Asians, American Indians, and others. To do less, would endanger America’s national security.

President Obama, and many of his supporters, have been jolted by the reality that America, as a national community, is vastly different from individual communities at the local level. The president is certainly not naive; he properly understands that local community organizing is quite different from national community building.

For instance, the distribution of economic and political power is quite different at both levels; the winners and losers are much more ferocious at the national level, and change as a prospect, is more threatening at that level than at the local level. Is it any wonder that President Obama’s health care proposals have been met with such fierce opposition within his party and among Republicans?

The health care virtual fiasco, for me, is a reminder of the intense individualism of the American culture, and that those who are less well off in American society are suspects of individual failure. And to seek governmental help is evidence of personal failure. “Blame the victim” mentality is a major characteristic of America’s socio-economic-political psychology, an admission of which is extremely hard to obtain. But admission and willingness to remove it from our psychology, will certainly contribute to the enhancement of the nation’s national security.

As we turn our attention to one of America’s vibrant groups, African Americans, and as the group looks inward on itself during the month of February, it is a good time to think about the things that this nation’s national security will need to maintain its integrity and respect at home and abroad.

Most of the world respects our military grandeur, but are not scared by it, as demonstrated when some nations decide to be a thorn in our flesh. These nations know that our military might, particularly our nuclear arsenal, would not only be mercilessly destructive on enemy targets, but equally and simultaneously self-destructive.

Thus, reliance on our military muscle to demonstrate integrity and effectiveness only undermines our national security. The best way to enhance America’ national security is to increase our efforts to improve the other dimensions of genuine national security, which are socioeconomic security, moral integrity, and cultural tolerance.

Dr. Keith C. Simmonds, professor, political science & assistant dean project director, Center for Global Security and International Affairs