Sheila R. Ronis

Economic Security: Neglected Dimension of National Security? Sheila R. Ronis

Five years ago, I had the privilege of conducting a study as a consultant to the U. S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee. Congress asked me, as a systems scientist, to look at a number of defense industrial base issues and their national security implications. The Nation is not well prepared to plan for or establish policy or "grand" strategy in a holistic or long-term sense, and the national security implications of that shortcoming remain very disturbing. I recommended the establishment of a center in the Executive Office of the President for "whole of government" and interagency "foresight capability and grand strategy development" and execution, along with an interagency committee of Congress to have oversight responsibility for the center because the Nation has no means to do this. Then, in my work with the Project on National Security Reform over the last few years, the Vision Working Group that I led recommended the establishment of a Center for Strategic Analysis. . .