Robert C. O’Brien - While America Slept: Restoring American Leadership to a World in Crisis

2016 by Robert C. OBrien

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First American edition published in 2016 by Encounter Books, an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc., a nonprofit, tax exempt corporation.

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FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: OBrien, Robert C., 1966 author.

Title: While America slept: restoring American leadership to a world in crisis / by Robert C. OBrien; foreword by Hugh Hewitt.

Description: New York: Encounter Books, [2016] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016007354 (print) | LCCN 2016019473 (ebook) | ISBN 9781594039041 (Ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: United StatesForeign relations21st century. | National securityUnited States. | United StatesMilitary policy.

Classification: LCC JZ1480 .O37 2016 (print) | LCC JZ1480 (ebook) | DDC 355/.033573dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016007354

Interior page design and composition: BooksByBruce.com

Advance Praise for While America Slept

Robert OBrien is well known as an expert on naval affairs but this book shows a penetrating understanding of the broad range of national security issues. Its a must-read for anyone who wants to know how and why the threats to America are growing, and what we can do about them.

SENATOR JIM TALENT

No president in the history of the United States, not even Jimmy Carter, has been as disastrous to Americas national security interests, global standing, and foreign policy as Barack Obama. From the rise of ISIS to the resurgence of Russia, Obama and his team didnt see any of it comingbut Robert OBrien did. All of it. As one of Americas most important national security and foreign policy voices, OBrien is continually one step ahead of global events and informed to an astounding depth. His captivating essays succinctly outline the challenges our nation faces and what we must do to surmount them. Imagine the brilliance of Kissinger combined with the talent of Clancy and you have only scratched the surface of Robert OBriens writing. These essays are absolute must-reads for anyone who cares about the future of the United States.

BRAD THOR, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF CODE OF CONDUCT

When Robert writes on a national security issue, people pay attention. He knows how to cut through the clutter to highlight the problem and articulate a solution. He also knows when others arent confronting the real issues and holds the powerful accountable.

RICHARD GRENELL, FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR

Robert OBrien has made a strong contribution to the American dialogue about our national security and the particular role that maritime power has to play in our nations future. Well worth the read for serious thinkers.

DR. JERRY HENDRIX, CAPTAIN, UNITED STATES NAVY (RET.)

In a time when Americas foreign policy seems to have become the province of amateurs and cynical former campaign volunteers, a voice like Robert OBriens is a breath of fresh air. A go-to lawyer in high-stakes litigation, a seasoned diplomat, and an Army Reserve officer, Roberts take on the issues hearkens back to the time when United States foreign policy was in the hands of wise, accomplished, experienced adults who understood the stakes because they had lived lives outside of graduate school seminars and away from computer screens. Someday America will again be ready to embrace maturity when it comes to national security, and Robert OBrien will be on the short list of wise men and women who will rebuild Americas stature in the world. While America Slept will be a blueprint for that critical reconstruction.

KURT SCHLICHTER, AUTHOR, ATTORNEY, AND COLONEL, UNITED STATES ARMY (RET.)

For Robert Christopher OBrien

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ANSWER: Because national security is different.

QUESTION: I never read collections of articles unless they were authored by Charles Krauthammer, Peggy Noonan, or George Will. Why should I read one where all the pieces are by a super-lawyer Ive never heard of?

The answer above is all you need to know. We have no permanent allies, Britains great Victorian-era Prime Minister and global strategist Lord Palmerston is said to have declared. We have no permanent enemies; we have only permanent interests.

Some dispute whether Palmy actually said thisbut no matter. He ought to have said it because he conducted Great Britains foreign policy as though he believed it with every fiber of his being. So have all the greatest national security strategists. So will the national security strategists that seek to recover Americas badly damaged position in the world.

Because Americas permanent interests have been badly damaged by the past seven years of maladministration, the best thinking about what should have been done during those years is now vitally important to inform the decisions to be made for the next eight years, beginning with whom Americans pick to replace the worst foreign policy president since Jimmy Carter.

In 1978, right in the middle of the locust years that made up the Carter presidency, I graduated from college and went to work for former President Richard Nixon in his exile in San Clemente, California, as second to head writer Ray Price on the project that would emerge in the spring of 1980 titled The Real War. Nixon wrote The Real War with the purpose of directly impacting the presidential campaign in which, for obvious reasons, he could have no visible part. But Ronald Reagan was photographed carrying The Real War about and we felt our work had been done. A book read and timely displayed is both crucial content for the campaign and a marker of a candidates seriousness.

Robert C. OBriens collection of essays on national security from the Obama years and his new introduction serve the same purpose as Nixons 1980 book did. Of course, OBrien has none of Nixons notoriety, and with good reasonhe has served quietly as a diplomat and lawyer in some of the worlds most dangerous places and usually out of the spotlight. In the George W. Bush administration he advised Ambassador John Bolton at the UN and headed a State Department initiative to build the rule of law in Afghanistan. He was a close advisor to Mitt Romney in two presidential campaigns. He has monitored elections in Georgia and Ukraine and briefed many GOP presidential hopefuls on the needs of the Department of Defense generally and the US Navy specifically.

OBrien is in such demand among the GOP presidential campaigns that not one but two OBrien primaries were held in 2015. The first took place when Governor Romney decided not to run. Governor Walker then delivered clear calls for rearmament before his campaign endedcalls shaped by OBrien and his fellow realist and friend, former Missouri Senator Jim Talent. No sooner had Governor Walker withdrawn from the race than OBriens phone began ringing a second time with requests that he join this or that national security team. Instead of committing to any of the candidates, OBrien decided to commit to them all via this book and an output of key pieces and features on the national security challenges facing the next president.