Obama rids terror lexicon of \'Islamic radicalism\'

WASHINGTON: Expunging terms such as \"Islamic extremism\" and \"Muslim fundamentalism\" from US government lexicon, the Obama administration on Thursday rolled out a new national security doctrine that looks beyond American military might to address contentious issues and calls for accepting and managing the rise of emerging powers such as China and India.



The 52-page document, President Barack Obama\'s first National Security Strategy outline, is starkly different from his predecessor George Bush\'s outlook in eschewing a unilateralist approach. Instead, it emphasizes the value of global cooperation, developing wider security partnerships and helping other nations defend themselves.



The document reaffirms that the United States is \"building a strategic partnership\" with India and calls on China to take on \"a responsible leadership role\", while vowing to \"monitor China\'s military modernization programme and prepare accordingly.\"



In a section on building relationship with other 21st century \"influencers\", the NSS says India\'s \"responsible advancement\" serves as a positive example for developing nations, and provides an opportunity for increased economic, scientific, environmental, and security partnership.



\"We value India\'s growing leadership on a wide array of global issues, through groups such as G-20, and will seek to work with India to promote stability in South Asia and elsewhere in the world,\" it says.



The formulation has a distinctly different tone to the primacy Washington typically gives China in Asia (including in South Asia) and elsewhere.



The National Security Strategy is mandated under a 1986 law that requires the president to present Congress an annual strategic statement. Most administrations have only sporadically adhered to the requirement, although President Bush issued two such documents, in 2002 and 2006.



Bush\'s 2006 strategy, coming at the height of the Iraq War and the insurgency in Afghanistan, explicitly stated that \"the struggle against militant Islamic radicalism is the great ideological conflict of the early years of the 21st century\".



But Obama takes a different approach to preserving US primacy, arguing that an America \"hardened by war\" and \"disciplined by a devastating economic crisis\" cannot sustain extended fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan, while fulfilling other commitments at home and abroad.



One of the implementers of Obama\'s policy of not viewing Muslim nations through the lens of terror is Pradeep Ramamurthy, a National Security Council staffer who runs the administration\'s Global Engagement Directorate.



The GED is a four-person team tasked by Obama with the use of diplomacy and outreach \"in pursuit of a host of national security objectives\".



A former FBI counter-terrorism analyst seconded to the White House, Ramamurthy is one of nearly dozen staffers of Indian origin in the White House.



The GED is now credited with being responsible for scratching \"Islamic radicalism\" from the text of the NSS and engendering a new approach couched in more generic language.
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