White House Role in the Schlesinger Recommendations

The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece this week briefly discussing the two Schlesinger reports.  While the Air Force has worked to implement many of the recommendations made in the first task report, the second report makes much broader claims about the atrophy of the nuclear mission throughout the DoD and the importance of our extended deterrence to allies and friends throughout the world.   The piece's conclusion goes a step further and argues for the importance of White House leadership to achieve some of the ideas set forth in Schlesinger 2,

It's now up to the Obama Administration to move on the task force's findings. But adopting the management and personnel changes the report recommends won't be enough. "Strengthening the credibility of our nuclear deterrent should begin at the White House," the report states. If the new President makes clear his commitment to the U.S. nuclear deterrent, that attitude will echo down the chain of command.

Obama's calls for moving towards a world free of nuclear weapons and support for various arms control measures add an additional element of complexity to the situation.  Obama's objectives and the call for increased deterrence credibility may not be directly at odds with each other but it will certainly not be easy to simultaneously achieve both objectives.