A long held maxim in Washington says that our national security apparatus can handle only two big foreign policy crises at once. The policy community just doesn’t have the human bandwidth or resources to cope with more than two at the same time, and even two full blown crises would be stretching it. Having served in senior government positions across several administrations, I can attest to the accuracy of this maxim. That’s why I’m worried.
Just look at what is knocking on the door of the White House Situation Room and demanding the attention of policymakers inside all at once. The standoff with Pyongyang over its missile and nuclear programs constitutes a major challenge requiring intense focus. It’s also clear that if this conflict escalates to an actual shooting war, it will dominate the U.S. security agenda and crowd out any other issue for the foreseeable future.
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WNU Editor: Michael Dempsey believes that because of a lack of commitment in resources, the U.S. is limiting its involvement in handling the foreign policy crisis that are now rapidly occurring throughout the world. His answer .... in a nutshell .... is more of the same. My response is .... more of the same? There is only so much that any country can (and should) do .... and trying to put a handle on many of these global crisis is an enormous task .... especially when one factors the resources that must be committed to such an undertaking. Is this what the American people really want? My answer is no.