The Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy recently held a conference that featured some spirited exchanges between National Public Radio correspondent Mara Liasson, Yale University professor Akhil Reed Amar and BC Law School Assistant Professor Richard Albert. (Photos by Suzanne Camarata)
Mixed Reviews for President Obama's National Secuity Policy at Clough Forum
'President Obama, National Security and Executive Power' forum featured eminent law professors, political scientistsand journalists
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President Obama's efforts to combat terrorism and ensure national security drew a wide scale of reviews at a Boston College conference last Friday, with one presenter terming his national security policy "a 'body double' for the Bush administration," and another predicting that his political moves are placing him "on track for Mount Rushmore."The spirited, informative and sometimes rollicking discussion on "President Obama, National Security and Executive Power" took part at a forum sponsored by the University's Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy and featured a line-up of eminent law professors, political scientists and journalists.
Attendees also heard two keynote speakers during the conference: Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow at The Brookings Institute; and R. Nicholas Burns '78, former US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs who served under Presidents Clinton and Bush.
"I have covered the Obama campaign and the Obama Administration - which are two different things - and although there was a huge break in rhetoric from the Bush Administration when it came to national security and presidential power, there is a surprising amount of continuity in policy between the Obama Administration and the second Bush term," said Mara Liasson, a national political correspondent for National Public Radio.
"I don't think Obama came into office with all of this stuff clearly thought out," Liasson said. "He wants the same national security tools - even if he does not plan to use them. He has never been an executive before. The only thing he has ever run is a very good campaign. He is a consensus maker, a finder of common ground."
BC Law School Assistant Professor Richard Albert told conference attendees that "The use of executive power in matter of national security in the first term of the Obama Administration reflects what one would have expected to see during a 'third term' of the Bush presidency. President Obama has spoken to disagree, but he has not acted in a way that actually manifests visibly...his disagreement with the Bush administration.
"It turns out," Albert added, "that the Obama administration has emerged as somewhat of a 'body double' for the Bush administration on matters of national security."
Akhil Reed Amar, the Stirling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University begged to differ. "The presidency is a foreign policy office," he said, noting that most of the nation's early chief executives were either statesmen or generals.
"Obama has a 'Peace Corps' vision of the world, not a 'Marine Corps' vision," Amar said. "He understands how the rest of the world sees us. You have to win the hearts and minds of people around the world. You have to understand who they are and put their minds at ease. I think he has been far more successful than his predecessors.
"So even as he is pursuing policies that may not be that much different than his predecessor, he may be able to sell them to the rest of the world. He has more credibility," he said.
Obama is one of only few presidents to have had implemented a sweeping impact on the nation in a relatively short period of time, Amar said. "He's on track for Mount Rushmore."
Similar conversations on topics ranging from surveillance tactics, covert operations, treatment of detainees, coercive interrogation and prosecution of previous administration officials for criminal violations were covered in depth during the day's panels, which included such experts as BC Drinan Professor of Law George Brown, an authority on the jurisdiction of federal courts.