Big ideas, big problems.

• Author: Halper, Stefan
• Position: Concepts on enhancing US national security

JOE NYE of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government is fond of saying that it's not whose army wins, it's whose story wins. Today neither America's army nor its story is winning. Americans ask why.

Many analysts believe today's national security team is the weakest in recent memory: transfixed by a single irresolvable challenge, unable to integrate divergent views, lacking strategic perspective and so on. Though some of this may be true, American undertakings depend on popular support--so the flawed public debate may equally contribute to the problem. How we frame oncoming challenges, debate them and decide a course of action is problematic.

As George F. Kennan observed, truth is a poor competitor in the marketplace of ideas. It is complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, and vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse. At times of severe challenge or crisis the American debate is often driven by passion and supposition. Sloganeering prevails and think tanks, opinion writers and the Congress--the institutions we rely upon for pragmatic, informed analysis and guidance (what I have termed the "rational center")--are sometimes uncertain and often silent. As a result, irrational impulse prevails over rational policy.

Today, two elements largely shape the policy debate. The first is America's unusual susceptibility to "Big Ideas." Some of these, like "Freedom on the March", affirm the nation's mission and destiny. Others, like "Axis of Evil", are "framing concepts", designed to advance and support specific policies. Still others--phrases like "Stay the Course"--are little more than transitory cliches. All these slogans compress complex issues into simple nostrums that obfuscate rather than illuminate. The worst phrases, like McCarthy's "monolithic communism", the Vietnam era's "Domino Theory" and the modern neoconservatives' "drain the swamp", have been disastrously misleading. All this begs the question of why we are so susceptible to this phenomenon.

From the beginning America was an "imagined community", defined in non-territorial and non-ethnic terms, regularly re-conceptualizing its "Exceptionalism" to meet new challenges. What became an enduring American habit of self-construction served to create a perpetual industry of Big Ideas fashioning and illuminating the substance of nationhood--America as "New Jerusalem", the "Last Best Hope on Earth" or the "Indispensable Nation." (1) They emphasize the notion that America has a unique and providential mission. Big Ideas bind citizens to America's perceived mission. Used with care, Big Ideas translate abstract options to tangible policies. Used unwisely, Big Ideas foreshorten debate, unleash emotions and create false realities.

The second element is the 24/7 media, which, with large blocks of time and space to fill, seeks catchy stories and fresh faces to attract eyes, ears and advertising. The situation rewards amusing and superficial explanations ("infotainment"). Not surprisingly, slogans dominate the discourse.

A Recurring Syndrome: McCarthy, Vietnam and Iraq

EACH OF the three post-World War II generations has grappled with a ubiquitous, global threat, and each has suffered the consequences of ill-conceived policy responses. Each time--during the Red Scare of the early Cold War and during the run-ups to the Vietnam and Iraq Wars--Big Ideas turned complex foreign policy challenges into undifferentiated, apocalyptic threats...