National Security - Goals

It's time to start putting this all together, with the usual caveats.  A) I am not an expert on all these topics, so take this with a grain of salt B) even expert opinion is sometimes wrong (for the longest time nations thought wealth was tied to how much gold was in your treasury, until Adam Smith came along.  There are some very good reasons why developing nations are skeptical of what the IMF and other organizations recommend  That doesn't mean we should ignore expert opinion entirely, just that we need to explore counter-opinions and understand dissenting views.)  With that said, I want to break this down into four initial categories, with more in-depth posts to follow - 

First and foremost, the right to self-defense should never be denied.  I think the strategy for that is fairly straightforward, at least with existential threats.  Cyberwarfare is still a bit of a wild card here, in that interference with our elections could be considered an existential threat and (depending on the severity) a potential cause for war. 

I'd recommend looking at just war theory for a better discussion of when to go to war and why.  In particular I wanted to discuss the importance of right intention.

Force may be used only in a truly just cause and solely for that purpose—correcting a suffered wrong is considered a right intention, while material gain or maintaining economies is not.

Control of oil is not something that justifies war, under this criteria.  And it's not an existential threat (to the US at least, where we do have domestic sources.)  I would put any discussion of resource control into the next category. 

Second - there is competition for critical resources.  Those resources may change given time. (I personally think battery and solar technology has developed to the point where a focused effort could wean ourselves off oil, and I'm kind of disappointed not to hear more suggestions for doing so.  At least Tesla is trying to create the right ecosystem for that.  I monitor a few science sites that show tremendous progress in terms of battery storage, energy efficiency, and energy creation.  I won't judge those who used to think ensuring a reliable oil supply was critical to national security - though I may disagree with their strategy for doing so - but I think technology has developed to the point where this is no longer the case.  Or doesn't have to be.  I want that moon shot, dammit!  It would change the entire global geopolitical situation, and I want to figure that out rather than try working through this old and tired oil-addicted one.)

Anyways.  Regardless of whether it's oil or something else, there will probably always be something for nations to compete over.  Venetian mirrors, anyone?  Intellectual property?  Access to rare earth metals?  Access to prime asteroid mines?  Access to colonies on Mars?

The United States is a player in that competition, just like everyone else.  I'll go into that in more depth later.

Third - we need a healthy and strong economy.  I put this third in that self defense and critical resources can take priority in the short term, but in the long run having a strong economy helps significantly with the other two.  Each of these categories connects to the others, so the priorities may shift as needed.

And Fourth - we want to influence the world in the ways we think best.  Human rights, democracy, capitalism...I prefer my more generic first sentence because those ways can shift or change over time.