Dr. John Allison, Wilfrid Laurier University
International Studies Association Convention, March 2005
Page 9 of 20
in formal long-term planning.
19
This function was quickly disbanded as presidents
moved to a much more ad hoc direction in terms of national security. Also, as is well
known, the reliance on the National Security Advisor has become much more
pronounced in the time since the initial creation of the National Security Council.
20
It is
also clear, that in the intervening decades since the creation and withering of this office,
the American “grand strategy” and long-term planning has become mired in many of the
issues of the moment. These occupied most of the attention of the Cold War presidents.
Currently, the War on Terror is another iteration of this process. Much of the current
National Security Council priorities look to the future in terms of military security.
21
Many of the commentators who look at these issues argue that 30 to 40 years down the
road, the economic and actions that are taken to day will make a substantial difference in
terms of what kind of world exists tomorrow. Overwhelming the focus on security will
not to change incremental, slow-moving, economic and environmental change. Long-
range planning and long-term problems are something that American leaders need to look
at.
Similarly, Canadian prime ministers have a mixed record in terms of longer-term
thinking. Policies are generally pursued by Canadian prime ministers in the near term.
Certainty, Pierre Elliot Trudeau could not see that his discussions with G7 and other
world leaders concerning the Peace Initiative in the fall of 1984 would lead to any long-
term outcome such as the end of the Cold War. Arguably, his discussions helped set the
stage for the dramatic developments of the late 1980s.
22
Yet, at the same time, it is clear
19
Jerel Rosati, The Politics of United States Foreign Policy(Belmont: The Wadsworth Group, 1999),
p.125.
20
Rosati, The Politics, p. 125.
21
George W. Bush, “ The National Security Strategy of the United States,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nssall.html, accessed on: Monday February 14
th
, 2005.
22
Norman Hillmer and Jack Granatstein, Empire to Umpire. Canada and the World to the 1990s.( Toronto:
Copp Clark Longman, 1994), p. 450.
Convention