Three National Interests likely to Be at a Great Risk over the Next Five Years to the United States
Despite the tremendous efforts being made by the government, some of its national interests such as the energy security, cyber warfare and genocide prevention are likely to face the greater risks in the next five years. In order to gain the surety and success of these interests, some relevant instruments of national power should be brought into action.
While addressing the Joint Session of Congress, the President Barack Obama pointed at the energy security as one of the core drivers of the United States’ economy. Even after the current economic recession, energy security will continue to be the determinant of the United States’ economic survival. Due to its rapidly increasing energy consumption rate, the United States is likely to continue facing a major energy crisis. As a solution, the President Obama has emphasized that the survival of the United States depends on finding new sources of energy (“Remarks of President Barack Obama”).
This process of finding new sources of energy for the country entirely depends on the intensity and quality of research done in this field. As such, the information stands as a better instrument of power that the government and other stakeholders in the energy sector can exploit to advance the country’s energy security. The information is power and should, therefore, be sought and made available for the purposes of generating and sharing ideas. The government to govern the information sharing between the United States and other governments would decrease the overreliance on the coal and hydro power resulting into the production of renewable and clean energy (Rosenbach and Aki).
Even though terrorism has been one of the major concerns in the United States, terrorism continues to advance as the propagators of this vice are adopting the technology to fuel the evil. Cyber security is the fastest growing threat and concern to the security and satiability of the United States. The economic effect of fighting this vice is quite substantial that the government has decided to include into its national budget the full cost of fighting terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq (Uda 194).
The internet is the current recruiting avenue for the terrorism. Notably, Al-Qaeda has developed a growing online presence to promote and incite the violence against humanity. The use of social networks must now be monitored since it is the current brooding ground for both ardent and aspiring terrorists. They have taken the advantage of the online forums to nurture their unbecoming beliefs and destructive knowledge of the weapon production and websites hacking (Uda 109).
America must, therefore, leverage its military and information power to curb this vice in order to boost its fight against the cybercrimes. The American National Intelligence Service is the main source of power that should be harnessed to identify the masterminds of such crimes and also to block the online financial transactions, as well as the supports of the entire network. Cyber education should be the part of the intelligence training, supported by the ongoing research and the development in this field of cybercrimes.
Prevention of Genocide
According to the Genocide Prevention Task Force (2008), genocide and mass atrocities forms the major threats to the American core values and national interests. While issuing the directive for the formation of the Genocide Prevention Task Force (GPTF), the President Obama noted that the national security was greatly affected in the time when the masses of innocent civilians had been killed. As a result, this caused the regional instability (“Presidential Study Directive”). Hence, the prevention of genocide is America’s moral duty, and it is being of the national interest. The government must, therefore, act cooperatively, decisively and swiftly in order to confront this worldwide horror.
In doing this, the government should apply the military power and preventive diplomacy in addressing such issues as racism, religious differences, oppression, and inequality long before it escalates to the unexpected massacre like the one witnessed in Rwanda. The military and national intelligence stands at the position of detecting any looming disagreements or threats in the society. Preventive diplomacy can then provide a set of tools that can be used to peacefully respond to such threats in advance.
The successful economic planning of the country should be informed by the knowledge of its future obstacles. A proper application of the above instruments of power is a guarantee to curbing the worldwide genocide, cybercrimes and also establishing the clean and sustainable energy source for the whole nation.