CRS On Strategy

The Congressional Research Service recently issued a report on the National Security Strategy.

"In principle, congressional oversight of administration strategic efforts can help hold the executive branch accountable for both the content and the rigor of its thinking," notes the Aug. 6 report, first obtained by Secrecy News. "To the extent that strategy actually shapes policy-making and resourcing, such strategy oversight can be a powerful tool for shaping real-world outcomes. In practice, executive branch compliance with statutory mandates -- in terms of both form and content -- has been mixed at best in recent history."

Further:

This report offers a brief overview of the role of strategy in conducting the business of national security; and it reviews the major statutory and non-statutory mandates for national security activities, addressing both requirements and execution to date. It analyzes key issues that may be of interest to Congress in exercising oversight of executive branch strategy-making, including the frequency of strategy updates; the synchronization of timelines and content among different strategies; the prioritization of objectives; the assignment of roles and responsibilities among relevant agencies; the links between strategy and resourcing; and the value of a competition of ideas.