America needs a national security networking forum and ideas incubator

Autumn conjures distinct sentiments: respect, gratitude and optimism. This month, I feel overwhelming respect for the sacrifices made by our veterans, which we annually hallow on Nov. 11. Gratitude is, of course, embodied in our tradition of Thanksgiving, acknowledging the manifest blessings — liberty foremost among them — our nation’s grand democratic experiment has enabled. Optimism is, perhaps, the most American sentiment of them all. We share an abiding faith that humankind is advancing, that our best days lie before us, that the obstacles we face can — and will — be overcome.

I encourage all Americans to read the Biden administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS), issued last month. Drawing on two years of experience and following little-heralded foreign policy triumphs, including the U.S.-brokered Israel-Lebanon maritime accord signed on Oct. 27, the document inspires optimism by offering a transparent and practical roadmap for how the United States will maintain its geopolitical preeminence. It emphasizes outcompeting China and constraining Russia; underscores the need to cooperate with allies on shared challenges such as climate change, weapons proliferation and terrorism; and highlights the imperative of continuing to modernize and strengthen our military.

The NSS does more than merely enumerate the challenges our nation faces and how we can surmount them. In a departure from previous administrations, the White House points out that — to succeed — we must shape the rules of the road. The global technological transformation means we cannot count on 19th- and 20th-century doctrines to keep us secure. Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine offers a case study in this regard, demonstrating that might by itself cannot prevail in a world where the way in which force is applied is at least as important as the force itself. Technology and its mastery enable precision, efficiency and efficacy. The NSS prescribes a modern industrial approach — predicated on resources devoted to renewable energy, microelectronics and biotechnology — to ensure the U.S. military remains a fearsome force able to dominate every battlespace (including space) it enters.

The NSS also correctly asserts that investing in our inherent strengths, particularly our people, is key to safeguarding our national security. It stresses that, to succeed abroad, we must build our resilience at home. It lays emphasis on STEM education and the need for the United States to attract and retain the best talent. For too long, American immigration policy has focused on ensuring a level international playing field and avoiding brain-drain abroad while our competitors eagerly snap up top foreign graduates of our top universities. Thankfully, the Biden administration recognizes that, in a global marketplace, we must compete for talent. 

Because of its pioneering spirit, democratic norms and faith in free enterprise, the United States is the rightful home for innovators — from every land — willing to work hard to champion for all the opportunities only a free society can advance. I sincerely hope the White House will continue to work with Congress on reforming the hidebound visa rules that have served to repel, rather than reward, the planet’s best and brightest.

Of course, recent espionage cases involving Chinese scholars and high-profile cyber attacks undertaken by hackers aligned with Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and other authoritarian states remind us — if reminding was needed — that we cannot view the world through a lens of Pollyannaish complacency. Our adversaries mean to do us harm and will stop at nothing to destroy all we hold dear. Consequently, it is incumbent on us to vet carefully those who would become Americans. Provisional citizenship, predicated on monitored behaviors and years-long investigations, is one option for ensuring the individuals we welcome into our society are assets seeking to help us build a better tomorrow.

In advancing its foreign policy goals, the United States is blessed to be able to rely on an expert and utterly committed corps of national security professionals. Across multiple departments and agencies, they work to ensure our nation will prevail against all adversaries. These unsung heroes represent a vital resource and we should respect — and give thanks for — their sacrifices. I am optimistic our country will continue to produce such extraordinary individuals, but more must be done to develop and retain them. To this end, I propose that the White House create, and Congress fund, a U.S. national security employee community.

By bringing together rising talent, seasoned professionals and practitioners who have retired or otherwise left government service, such a community — freed from the encumbrances of security clearances and bureaucratic stovepipes — would foster innovative thinking and the sharing of wisdom and best practices from public- and private-sector partners. This investment in people would close a glaring gap in the National Security Strategy and, in tandem with its other initiatives, help to ensure our country maintains its competitive edge. 

What might this community look like and what would it do? I envision something like a Chatham House on steroids. A robust and fertile networking forum and ideas incubator. An institution serving not only as a think tank, but also as a resource possessing deep reserves of ground truth and the ability to pivot nimbly in supporting policymakers and corporate leaders confronting our toughest national security challenges.

Members of this community would adhere to tight deadlines and produce pithy, to-the-point analyses on demand. They would serve as an ever-ready red cell, poised to wargame strategies and tactics by forecasting our adversaries’ next moves. They would cultivate a DARPA-like willingness to experiment, to offer unorthodox training and technical solutions to advance analytical and operational tradecraft in both the public and private spheres. Would forming this community be expensive? I think not, and believe the value of its contributions to national security would far outweigh its costs. Corporate sponsorships and/or subscriptions could help to lower the price tag while expanding the depth and diversity of its membership.

I propose this new U.S. national security community be named “English House” in honor of the American adventurer, soldier and diplomat George Bethune English, a man whose remarkable life should inspire respect, gratitude and optimism in us all. Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1787, English earned a master’s in theology at Harvard in 1811 and then went to Ohio and Indiana, where he edited a frontier newspaper. 

After President James Madison appointed him to the Marine Corps in 1815, English sailed to the Mediterranean, becoming one of the first U.S. citizens to visit Egypt. There he resigned his commission, converted to Islam, and won distinction in 1820 as de facto ruler Muhammad Ali Pasha’s top artillery officer (some historians speculate he worked as a U.S. intelligence officer while in Egypt). He subsequently joined the U.S. Diplomatic Corps and served in the Levant, where he secured a lucrative commercial agreement between the United States and the Ottoman Empire. He returned to the United States in 1827 and died in Washington in 1828.

Cam Burks is a senior fellow at George Mason University’s National Security Institute. He is a corporate global security executive, and served for nearly 15 years in the Foreign Service as a special agent and American Embassy Regional Security Officer with the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. He is a network affiliate at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Cooperation.