US: The White House is in the final stages of updating its National Security Strategy document, marking the first formal reassessment of its foreign policy posture since its landmark 2002 document set the stage for pre-emptive strikes against terrorist threats.
Administration sources said the updated version was expected next month. It is being drafted by National Security Council (NSC) officials - led by Peter Feaver, a former Duke University academic - but has not yet been presented to President Bush for approval.
The September 2002 document marked the most profound shift in US foreign and security policy since Harry S Truman in 1947 laid out the strategy of containing the Soviet Union.
The 2002 Bush doctrine provoked controversy by claiming the right to strike unilaterally and pre-emptively against hostile states and terrorist groups seeking to develop weapons of mass destruction. The US invaded Iraq six months later.
The new document will mark the first time national security adviser Stephen Hadley has put his formal stamp on the administration's security policy. Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, led the 2002 review.
NSC officials declined to comment on what changes would be made to the existing strategy. Analysts predicted it would emphasise a shift to focusing on nation-building and the problems of weak states, rather than targeting rogue states. Some neo-conservatives have expressed concern it could mark a retreat from the more assertive positions of 2002, such as pre-emption, the signature strategy of the administration.
Ivo Daalder, senior fellow at Brookings, said: "In 2002, the fundamental nature of the threat was al-Qaeda and links with state sponsors, and was about rogue states. The president's speeches over the last three, four months have identified the threat away from states to an organised group of extremist ideologists, and that democracy is the way to counter that. None of that is in the 2002 document, so there is a re-evaluation of the threat."
Defence department officials have warned contractors to expect flatter budgets after 41 per cent growth since the attacks of September 11th, and a shift to defeating terrorism by focusing on intelligence and communications.