The `state' of `defense':

...capabilities with limited efforts to reduce the suffering of the victims...

...role in the however reluctantly, Serbian conquests in cise, but simply to illustrate that, at world...

...Established as icy, particularly the economy and health ing of particular situations...

...The alternative view is that the Defense, Aspin has assembled a team last resort to balance the substantial ac- Clinton team has found the narrow path which will gravitate toward the "big pic- tivity which an Aspin-led Pentagon will between a major commitment of U.S...

...wants to attend to it or not, the has recruited people well-published on personnel and policy choices-they decade of the 1990s is a time of profound these themes...

...role, Allison published a pathbreaking study inant characteristic is not "big picture" an- and this will be a critical dimension of of the Cuban Missile Crisis, then stayed alysts but well-seasoned diplomats whose keeping balance in the Clinton policy with the nuclear issues until the late strengths have been in implementing pol- process...

...In Gelb's view, support for Concept of Cooperative Security...

...Bosnia and democracy in the last couple of ident can give foreign policy a deci- is a consequence of the major change in years...

...bodia), and to spend over a decade with in the State of the Union address, and in The issue Mr...

...The names are well known: The first major product of the process visible U.S...

...world, particularly this world of the vices Committee...

...but in the end the policy from highly critical...

...beyond its present position...

...Two different pressures could push wrong side of the Potomac River...

...The con- Feinberg on Latin America, have an es- the U.S...

...Some territory from the Serbs and impose a new To some degree the Pentagon team of the names are not as visible as Aspin's order, and being accused of doing nothlooks a bit like a State Department on the appointees, but others, like Richard ing...

...The big picture an expert on nuclear strategy in the most care...

...Along with Halperin and Security Council crucial in the policy There are two views of the Clinton polAllison, the new undersecretary of de- process of this administration...

...troops are required on both realist and moral grounds...

...Christopher State Department...

...Without the big picture, the danger Bosnia poses for WORLD WATCH the Balkans as a whole or the signal it sends to others contemplating some version of "ethnic cleansing" may be ignored...

...To stay ahead of the conflicts of the which he had at the House Armed SerWorld Stage," January 29...

...EsBargain" whereby the West would com- Moose for Africa, Peter Tarnoff as un- sentially, the policy is to support the mit substantial resources to the restruc- dersecretary for political affairs...

...change does not commit the United States Halperin of the Carnegie Endowment and The Clinton team must meet three re- to a highly activist policy, but it will pro- Graham Allison, former dean of the Kenquirements, one imposed from within the vide the historical, philosophical, and po- nedy School of Government at Harvard...

...These Vance-Owen negotiations with some U.S...

...But it could our problems stem in large part from this pline of the cold war, the old issues of the be that such problems as the breakdown breakdown in appreciation for what it Balkans have arisen again...

...At this writing, neither of these pressures is strong enough to dislodge the present policy...

...the push would then be for humanitarian intervention...

...Holding this tenuous consensus together is not simply a task of internal coherence in the Clinton administration...

...provides an impetus to act...

...One, represented by Leslie Gelb of fense is William Perry who served in the degree it is a benefit to have strong po- the New York Times, and a former colCarter Defense Department, and has just litical orientations in the Defense league of many Clinton appointees, is collaborated in a study titled A New Department...

...provide a clearer sense of how policy will change in the fabric of world affairs...

...The cold bolic meaning, where authority means the (or no real families at all), and the marginal- war had a place for Tito's Yugoslavia...

...The second would be increasing moral outrage at Serbian actions in Bosnia...

...1980s...

...bines an extraordinary range of publidetermination of the president to focus pri- Second, the big picture must then be re- cations with years of experience in the marily and consistently on domestic pol- lated to an in-depth, detailed understand- Washington bureacracy...

...The paradox Bosnia-embodies both big-picture sig- up issues of ethnicity, self-determination, of this strategy is that an American pres- nificance and local intractability...

...of marriage, the exodus from the vowed means to mean something, by virtue of hav- Bosnia also illustrates the limits of exreligious life, the lawlessness of adoles- ing been placed in a role...

...The initial infor policies of arms reductions, democ- representatives of the U.S...

...0 10: 26 March 1993 Commonweal...

...ture," and will seek a policy-setting role generate...

...The there will still be shaped in light of a se- Vance-Owen is a mistake, since it accepts, point here is not a bibliographical exer- curity conception of the U.S...

...The Clinton attempt thus far has been to combine a realism of restraint about U.S...

...To some icy...

...proponent of a "Grand Winston Lord for East Asia, George has been the decision on Bosnia...

...far seems designed to fill this role...

...Les Aspin seems tary on the Clinton foreign it explodes and demands his full atten- bent on creating the kind of think tank policy ("Clinton on the tion...

...Clinton presidency, the other two im- litical perspective for determining which Halperin, who will have responsibilities posed by the world confronting this ad- issues cannot be ignored and which for human rights and democracies, comministration...

...has placed Allison has continued his work on the which will likely emanate from the its relief efforts, its diplomatic backing, future of Russia, editing with Ashton Pentagon...

...WHERE THE BIG GUNS ARE How does the Clinton team look in light of the double demand for the big picture and discrete details...

...The NSC staff will be the court of Bosnia...

...E ternal influence when local conflict is driven by ultimate loyalties to ethnic, national, and religious identity...

...with assumption of responsibility more than the ization of the old-to name only a few of Tito gone, as well as the imposed disciright (that word again) to rule...

...As part of a general reSince then, a series of new appointments 1990s, the Clinton policy team must structuring of the Pentagon he has created have been made or proposed for second- contend with the other two requirements positions to address human rights, democlevel positions on the foreign-policy team for developing a U.S...

...First, there must be some "big pic- successor states of the Soviet Union...

...Clinton has engaged- the ACLU in Washington before taking the low-key policy issues...

...has no compelling interests in Bosnia would likely shift toward a more activist role...

...nuclearization...

...The NSC first would be the threat of the Bosnian conflict becoming a Balkan war...

...Taken together U.S...

...at that point, the "realist" arguments which presently hold that the U.S...

...To Council) and one major foreign-policy de- ture" architects for policy: Whether the staff these new roles in the Pentagon, he cision has been made...

...Without the specific details, the U.S...

...Since 1989 he has been the most icy choices...

...service, but no name at State stands out to distance itself from the Vance-Owen efThe bargain never sold in the West, but as a counterpoint to the kind of thinking forts, but in the end the U.S...

...He Commonweal 26 March 1993: 9 will not take long to readjust to being in- at the second level of appointments in the work will bear Lake's stamp, a decisiveside the policy process...

...The internal standard is the choices must be made...

...The trast is even more striking when one looks tablished record in their field...

...The dominant impression generated since the inauguration has been the visibility and This column is designed to ex- very well at the task, keeping major reputation of the nominations at the tend a previous commen- crises at bay, preempting trouble before Defense Department...

...and its promise of a limited number of U.S...

...turing of the old Soviet Union in return names command respect as experienced modification of their plan...

...diplomatic stinct of the Clinton administration was ratization, and economic restructuring...

...J. Bryan Hehir could easily underestimate the difficulty of "doing something" in response to the THE 'STATE' OF "DEFENSE horrors of this ancient feud...

...The dom- ly political conception of the U.S...

...position in the racy, the environment, proliferation, and (State, Defense, and National Security world...

...Carter (another new assistant secretary) The contrast between Defense and State troops in support of the negotiations of the a forthcoming book on cooperative de- makes the traditional role of the National United Nations...

...Anthony Lake's NSC staff thus forces, which would be needed to take back on key questions...

...On the whole, they tend to be "big picbe formulated in the Clinton presidency Having a solid conceptual framework to ture" analysts, best represented by two and what role the United States seeks to interpret the dimensions and degree of designates for assistant secretary: Morton play...

...the detailed as- creative phase of that discipline (the The strength of this conviction is man- sessment of specific cases will often in- early 1960s), he went on to serve in the ifested in the public time and energy duce caution about the ability of any McNamara Pentagon, to resign from the given to the domestic agenda, in the ab- outside actor to change local conditions Kissinger White House staff (over Camsence of any foreign-policy assessment decisively...

...political leadership aimed at the Europeans, and, possibly, U.S...

...Halperin writes in a style designed sively secondary role only if he performs international politics of the last four to succeed in bureaucratic bargaining...

...It also involves responding to arguments that stronger action in Bosnia-more U.S...