Accession Number:

ADA621389

Title:

Re-Imagining the American Community: Myth, Metaphor, and Narrative in National Security

Descriptive Note:

Master's thesis

Corporate Author:

NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL MONTEREY CA

Personal Author(s):

• Shevin, Michelle G.

Report Date:

2014-09-01

Pagination or Media Count:

81.0

Abstract:

In 2011, two defense strategists premiered their argument for a new national strategic narrative. Geared toward national security but intended to guide policymaking across government, this narrative has yet to receive official endorsement by the Defense Department or at the executive level. This thesis will explore ifwhy a new narrative is necessary, using an interdisciplinary historical and analytic approach. Consulting scholarship from ecology, sociology, economics, chaos theory, cybernetics, and other fields, the author will attempt to elucidate unobvious shifts occurring at multiple levels of the U.S. strategic realm. Shifting paradigms provide a good lens through which to view the narrative fragmentation that has arguably rendered much of U.S. strategy and policymaking ineffective over the last two decades. Ultimately, the author will argue that the U.S. government and population would reap long-term security and prosperity benefits from a revamped overall national strategic narrative to guide whole-of-government strategy in the coming decades.

Descriptors:

• *NATIONAL SECURITY
• *STRATEGY
• BENEFITS
• COMMUNITIES
• DEFENSE SYSTEMS
• DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
• HISTORY
• MODELS
• POPULATION
• TERRORISM
• THEORY
• THESES

Subject Categories:

• Government and Political Science
• Military Operations, Strategy and Tactics

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE