Searching for True Community: A Self Help Book on National Security

By David Van Bennekum

As the first self-help book on national security, 'Searching for True Community' is an entertaining introduction that leaves the reader better informed on world events today, and what may be in the news tomorrow. Our goal is to spark an interest, through creative storytelling, by turning what many of us see as a dry subject into one that is relatable to all of us.

For most of us national security is boring. We hand national security over to the Sunday morning talk shows because it's the perfect place for boring people, in boring gray suits, to discuss a boring topic. When the subject comes up, we start flopping and flailing around like a fish out of water. It's not our fault. Most of us haven't served in the military or some government agency. We're not spies of Navy SEALs. We're accountants and deliveryman, and students and homemakers.

But you know that even if national security doesn't touch you today, it can touch you tomorrow. You know in your gut there is a cost to burying our heads in the sand because there are men and women representing our values around the world. And you know our values mean little if we can't express them. So, you picked up this book for a little help and here's your first tip - you are already a national security expert.

No, after reading this book, Anderson Cooper isn't going to use you as his national security analyst, and you most likely won't be invited as a consultant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But you will discover you can trust yourself to not only engage in the national security debate, but also challenge the so-called experts CNN keeps in speed dial.

We hope you enjoy it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Nov 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543991826

Book preview

cover.jpg

Copyright 2019 © A Self Help Book on National Security

ISBN: 978-1-54399-181-9 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-54399-182-6 (ebook)

To my parents for making me who I am and

my wife for putting up with it

Contents

Introduction

Let’s get started

A model for a better community

Building a 401K for peace

It’s not easy being me

Pepsi Points & Carbon Credits

Searching for true community

Doing what’s necessary

The Military

One final chapter

Acknowledgements

References

Introduction

My friends won’t be surprised to learn that I once thought La La Land was the best movie of all time. The singing, the dancing, Emma Stone: what’s not to love? I know that’s a strange start to a book on national security and I’m sure it sounds especially odd coming from a Marine. You might expect me to choose a movie with more machismo - a war flick or a film with an obscene number car chases and fight scenes perhaps. Sure, I’m being a little tongue – in – cheek, but the truth is I’m a sucker for a good musical and I love the message it sends. If you want to chase your dreams you have to take some risk and expose yourself to the critics around you so you can express what makes you unique, innovative and creative. You can stand in line and hope, in a stroke of random good luck, you get picked out of a crowd or you can find some way to stand apart from your peers to take ownership of your successes and failures.

To me, La La Land is a story that’s uniquely American because it’s a story about what we value as Americans. It’s also a story about how our ambitions can stress and even break our relationships apart. It’s no secret that our motivations are personal to us and they often get in the way of our relationships because sooner of later being part of any relationship may put more demands on us then we’re willing to give up. We may end up breaking away from a band to start our solo career or, like LeBron James, to take our talents elsewhere. In fact, Hollywood makes big bucks telling stories like La La Land because the conflict between our ambition and our relationships is a story we’re all familiar with – its what makes us human - and they’re smart enough to cash in on it. It’s also why you’re a national security expert.

But while flipping channels only weeks later I was reminded that thinking La La Land is the best movie of all time was a bit premature because I was reminded the greatest movie of all time is really My Cousin Vinny. It’s my guilty pleasure. I’m almost compelled to watch it every time it comes on and I’m sure I can recite the whole movie word by word if anyone had the patience to listen. I went to law school after all, so I have a natural attraction to stories about the law. But, what I really love about My Cousin Vinny is that it finds comedy in the very dry subject of criminal procedure – the rules that help ensure we all get a fair trial. It tells a funny story of two young men on trial for murder. In one scene Vinny is proud of himself for using the well-honed powers of persuasion of a personal injury lawyer to convince the prosecutor – Mr. Trotter – to hand over his case files. After bragging about his accomplishment, his fiancée asks; don’t you want to know why Trotter gave you his files? He has to. By law you’re entitled. It’s called disclosure you [Bleep]!! He has to show you everything otherwise it could be a mistrial.

Okay, you have to know the movie to get the humor, but the point is, anyone that can turn a boring subject like criminal procedure into a comedy is a pure genius in my book! The movie pokes fun at lawyers, the reliability of eyewitnesses, statements made to the police and even the credibility of experts. Normally this is pretty boring stuff, but put a New York City ambulance chaser in an strict Alabama courtroom and let the laughs begin. For me, My Cousin Vinny is a great example of why we need creative and compelling stories that engage us on dry subjects like criminal procedure so they are relatable and entertaining. Of course there are lots of other examples. In the movie The Big Short – a story about the 2008 housing crisis - a Nobel Prize winning economist and the pop star Selena Gomez are paired at a casino black jack table to explain why we are prone to making big bets we can’t cover. That’s good stuff!

When I first thought of writing a book on national security I naturally asked myself; who would actually read it? I’m not a military general or some politician, I’m just a guy you’ve never heard of writing about a subject every bit as boring as criminal procedure. So, I knew writing a compelling story was going to be hard. After all, we typically tell stories about national security through biographies of a general in some battle, a President challenged in overcoming the odds or a story of suspense and intrigue with world peace hanging in the balance. But let’s face it, if you’re not a history buff you’re probably not picking up a 500-page book about some guy or gal, who led a social movement, became a world leader or defeated a foe in battle. For many of us they’re just too long and they always seem to be written by academics for academics. It’s like we’re sitting in Mr. Hand’s high school history class as he lectures us on the Platt Amendment – that’s for you Fast Times at Ridgemont High fans out there (by the way, not the last ‘80s pop culture reference…consider yourself warned). In fact, we can learn something from the ultimate pothead: Jeff Spicoli. When accused of wasting the teacher’s time, he retorts I’ve been thinking about this Mr. Hand, if you’re here and I’m here doesn’t it make this our time?

Okay, its not likely Spicoli will ever be considered one of our great philosophers but he makes a good point. It is our time. We should be able to tell stories that fit somewhere between hundreds of pages of researched history and Schoolhouse Rock! And, we should know our audience and how to reach it through creative storytelling. After all, who knew you could rap the story of Alexander Hamilton and charge hundreds of dollars per ticket to see it - other than Lin-Manuel Miranda that is. His Broadway hit Hamilton is a great example of creative story telling and while academics like Mr. Hand might cringe their noses because entertaining stories are often incomplete stories, they can spark an interest that otherwise wouldn’t be there. First we need a good story that’s compelling and ideally…affordable. We can dig deeper into the facts and figures when our interest sparks discovery.

Unfortunately for you I can’t do a soft shoe routine, I don’t have a natural comedic gift and although I once considered myself a budding young rapper that fact is that Kurtis Blow, Whodini and Run DMC (yes, three more ‘80s references) never saw me as a legitimate threat. Instead this self-help book on national security is a story about community. The antagonists aren’t Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson – although the ideals they represent are important – rather how we struggle to protect our self-image against the threat of intruding community norms is what this book is about. It’s a common tale that we live everyday in our PTA meetings, homeowner’s associations and lacrosse teams. How much of ourselves are we willing to give up to be part of a group? What should schools teach and what should be left to the parents? Should I ride the bench or play for another team? These are the tough questions we ask everyday and they’re tough questions in national security as well because the community of nations is a community like any other community with all the strengths of achieving big goals together and all the challenges that come when self-interests get in the way of teamwork.

Communities are communities - no matter the size - with the same advantages that come with the richness of diversity and all the same challenges that come when diversity turns to divisiveness. Walking the line between diversity and divisiveness is not easy for any community because it’s not easy to give up our values and ambitions just to be part of a group.

Let’s get started

Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion and knowledge.

Plato

When I told my wife I wanted to write a book about national security she just rolled her eyes and said one thing – boring! It wasn’t exactly the encouragement I was looking for but she let me know what I was up against. For most of us national security is boring. We hand national security over to the Sunday morning talk shows because it’s the perfect place for boring people with boring gray suits to discuss a boring topic. We’re just not that interested. Or at least we don’t want to get up early on a Sunday to be told that the 1% of us in the military are shouldering the burden for the rest as if America could afford to put even 2% of its citizens in uniform. And let’s be honest, when the subject comes up we start flopping and flailing around like a fish out of water hoping to change the subject as fast as we can. It’s not our fault. Most of us haven’t served in the military or some other government agency. We’re not spies or Navy SEALs. We’re accountants and deliverymen and students and salesmen and homemakers.

So, it’s understandable that we’re not always comfortable voicing our opinions and its understandable that we’re just too consumed with the day-to-day grind of our busy lives to keep up. Sure, we’ll catch what we can on the radio, on TV or maybe a podcast but the fact is most of us just don’t have a personal connection to get us excited about national security or at least its nothing we typically get emotional over. It’s not taxes, healthcare and education. Taxes? I hate paying taxes! Healthcare? Of course I want my premiums lowered! Education? Yes, my kids are important to me! National Security? Eh…well, I did thank that Army guy I saw at the airport last week for his service. At least I think he was in the Army.

So let’s just give ourselves a break, it’s okay that we’re fish out of water when it comes to national security. After all, when was the last time our friends met to discuss the defense budget over drinks and who wants to be the killjoy that talks about North Korea at a party? Okay, we all know that guy but we only invite him out when we have to. When we’re having a good time we don’t want to talk about national security because its just too heavy for a casual chat among friends and in most cases we’re just trying to avoid those awkward conversations we never quite seem to successfully avoid. And doesn’t it just degrade politics with both sides blaming each other for the world’s problems anyway? So we relegate it to our Facebook feed where we can happily scroll past the impassioned flurry of the same friends we rightfully avoid inviting to our parties.

But, then again you picked up this book for a reason and hopefully that reason is that you know even if national security doesn’t touch you today it could touch you tomorrow. You know in your gut that there’s a cost to burying our heads in the sand because there are men and women representing our values around the world. And you know our values mean little if we can’t express them. So you picked up this book for a little extra help and here’s your first tip - you are already a national security expert. No, after reading this book Anderson Cooper isn’t going to use you as his national security analyst and you most likely won’t be invited as a consultant to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But, hopefully you will discover that you can trust yourself to not only engage in the national security debate but also challenge the so-called experts that CNN keeps on speed dial. You’re a national security expert…you just don’t know it yet.

But to tap into our hidden expertise we need to find our voice and that’s not going to be easy. I know because it wasn’t too long ago that I was a fish out of water too. I spent two decades as a Marine and before moving to Stamford, Connecticut for a new job with GE Capital I was a lowly Lieutenant Colonel trying my best to keep tabs on a multi-billion dollar program from my windowless office in the Pentagon. It was a big job but it was a job I was ready for. I knew the people, the culture and the ins and outs of the Marine Corps. I knew how to succeed. I was brash, outspoken and maybe even a little arrogant. I certainly didn’t have a problem finding my voice. But it wasn’t so easy when I showed up at GE Capital’s front door because I was challenged there in a way I hadn’t been challenged in a long time. The company that Thomas Edison built was changing after the 2008 financial crisis almost brought it to its knees and the Wall Street reform that followed brought government regulators to its doorstep.¹ There was a lot going on around me and I lacked confidence in my ability to understand what was being said, who was saying it and for what reason. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy to find my voice. So, I spent my days jotting down the terms and acronyms I didn’t understand and spent my nights researching what they meant.

The website Investopedia became a favorite of mine because I could usually find a simple definition there or a short cartoon clip of a stick figure holding a wad of cash as he explains the idea of ‘discounted cash flow’or some other concept that flew over my head that day. My goal was to be just a little smarter tomorrow than I was today. I was never going to be a finance guy and to be honest I didn’t want to be a finance guy. Instead, my goals were more modest. I just wanted to understand enough to participate in the discussion and hopefully contribute to the success of the team. And that’s my hope for you. You may not be the next Secretary of Defense or some stuffy analyst at a Washington D.C. think tank and I’m not sure why you’d want to be. But my hope is that you will find the confidence in yourself to contribute to the discussion even if you ultimately decide national security is best left for those boring gray suits on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Okay, let’s get started. If we’re going to get smarter about national security then we need to define what it means and when I go fishing for a definition I usually turn first to Wikipedia.Who doesn’t? According to Wikipedia national security is the idea that a government should protect the country and its citizens by projecting political power, economic power, military might and so on. I suppose it’s as good a definition as any but I think it’s too stuffy for us as an introduction and, always a fan of finding a easier way, I checked out Dictionary.com, which defines it as a collective term for our defense and the relationships we form with other countries to protect our interests. That’s better. I really like the words collective and relationships in defining national security because both acknowledge a social commitment – an obligation to our neighbors – as if our collective security as a community is our collective responsibility as a community. Relationships remind us that we’re not in this big world alone and when we define national security we should cast a wide net that captures not only our military but also how we protect our interests, and the interests of our neighbors, without military force. Maintaining relationships with our neighbors is what national security is all about as is energy policy and even child obesity. In fact, like playing six degrees of Kevin Bacon if you can think of it you can probably connect it somehow to national security.²

But, of course, casting such a wide net makes it hard to narrow in on a good definition and to tell you the truth as much as I liked the words collective and relationships I’m not really excited with what I found online. They’re okay for giving us an idea of the mechanics involved but they don’t talk to the value of being secure. After all, what are guarantees to freedom of speech and freedom of religion worth if we don’t feel secure in exercising them? It would be difficult for us to gather together if we didn’t feel secure in public places just like it would be difficult for us dine in our favorite restaurants if we felt insecure about the food we eat. Admit it, when was the last time you thought about food safety when grocery shopping? Sure, we look for bruises on apples and tap on watermelons like we actually know what we’re listening for but a dented can is a sign of a potential discount, not food poisoning. Right?

Feeling secure matters because it enables us to create, innovate, express our individuality and drives our quality of life higher and higher. Do you have a great idea? Well, we have these things called patents and copyrights to secure it from those that may want to claim it as their own. If we don’t feel secure in public places how can we assemble to protest our government, attend a concert or go to the state fair? If we don’t feel secure in our food why would we ever order a pizza? If our electronic banking isn’t secure then how could a little upstart called Amazon ever exist? So, national security is certainly about defense, building relationships, projecting power and all that jazz. But, it is also about our entrepreneurs, our artists and our authors. It’s what we value and how we secure those values that matter. So maybe we should come up with our own definition. We can do that. Let’s define national security simply as ‘securing the interests and values of a nation, a community and a people.’ I think that’s a good definition to get us started and if you decide to close this book and toss it out your window you can rest assured that it would at least make you sound smart. But a good definition isn’t enough. If we’re going to get smarter on national security then we need to find a way to apply it and I think the best way to apply it is as a behavioral science.

It may be weird to think of national security along side sociology, psychology and social work because when we think of national security we picture tanks and fighter planes, not social workers. On the surface national security seemingly has little in common with other behavioral sciences, but the thread that connects them together is that they all seek to shape and influence behaviors. In practice the general in the Pentagon and the social worker in our local communities are doing the same job because they both recognize that the relationships we choose to be part of, and the communities around us, shape our behavior. And if it’s true that our communities shape the way you and I behave then it’s probably also true that the community of nations shapes the behavior of nations. That’s why this is a book about community and why it makes sense to think of national security as a behavioral science. Of course this isn’t just me talking, I have Nobel Prize winners on my side and first up is Richard Thaler, the 2017 Nobel Prize winner in Economics, who received the prestigious award for observing people are human.³

Now, I know discovering people are human is not exactly groundbreaking news for most of us but his work is actually very important because he challenged a basic assumption in economics that people behave rationally. In other words, he challenged an assumption that when given the right information and provided the right incentives we should all rationally act in our best interests. So, for example, if having good health is in our best interest we should willingly buy a health insurance policy provided we’re adequately informed and