National Security Reform

Hoover’s Commons Initiative encompasses a newly formed National Security Reform Commission. This bipartisan commission will think strategically about how best to structure the national security apparatus to meet pressing challenges today and in the years ahead. No longer the sole superpower, the United States faces a complex and interconnected threat environment characterized by heightened economic and geopolitical competition among major powers, increasingly intense and unpredictable transnational challenges, multiple regional conflicts with far-reaching implications, and the emergence of technologies such as AI that have dramatically exacerbated national security threats. At the same time, our national security apparatus is going through a period of intense disruption, with the dismantling of numerous offices and programs, the departure of large numbers of public servants, and major changes to national security priorities, doctrine, governance and norms. Taken together, these two dynamics create an opportunity – as well as a demand – to fundamentally reimagine and reform our national security apparatus into one that most effectively protects American security and rights within the evolving worldwide security environment. The Commission's review will focus in particular on intelligence and law enforcement agencies that come under the purview of the National Security Council; their structure and organization; their respective areas of responsibility; the need for changes to their authorities, functions and practices; and the feasibility of making such changes by either executive or legislative action.