The King Returns

THE PRESIDENT'S MOTORCADE

Whenever the President of the United States visits a city, a well-oiled security machine begins to roll into high gear as White House staff, Secret Service personnel, and local and state law enforcement scramble to make sure everything is in place long before the visit.(1) Up to three months before the President’s visit, secret service agents begin checking local routes for safe points of entry and egress, for possible blockages or problems, for blind spots, and high vantage points which all may pose a risk. Then, local police are notified of people who have proved to be security threats in the past that live in the area, and these people are actually warned that they will be watched closely while the President visits.

After this, as the date of his visit gets closer, agents begin to bring in bomb sniffing dogs and equipment, to check parked cars, potential stops along the route, and to set up canopies wherever the President might leave his heavily armored limousine, nicknamed “the Beast,” to ensure that he isn’t exposed to lines of sight from above. Next, they send coordinators and agents to every hospital in the immediate area to ensure facilities are readily available and that the President is no more than 10 minutes away from a trauma hospital at any given time. And finally, as Air Force One, the almost universally recognizable presidential plane arrives; another, almost identical plane lands at a secret location in case the primary aircraft becomes disabled.

Then, the morning of the Presidential visit, highways and local roads are shut down to ensure the 20 vehicle motorcade is able to advance unimpeded. If the President is visiting a hotel, they clear the first three floors of the building and remove all electronics on those floors to prevent foreign agents from listening in on confidential conversations. Agents ensure he enters and exits from an unexpected entrance each time. As the motorcade travels between locations, hundreds of heavily armed law enforcement and secret service agents travel with him the entire way. Even medics are on hand with supplies of blood in case he needs a transfusion. Nothing is left to chance and every risk is considered and mitigated to its barest minimum.

All of these preparations can cost local governments $90,000 or more for a single visit, and the Federal government even more, sometimes up to $3 million if the city being visited is next to a coastal waterway that also has to be secured.(2)(3) All of this doesn’t include the many hours and months White House staff spend to develop itineraries, coordinate with local interest groups and politicians, and write speeches in advance of the event. It can be almost mind-boggling how much preparation goes into a single visit which might get a brief sound bite on the local news, and barely a notice to all but the most astute political observers.

And yet, these preparations also serve a greater strategic purpose than simply ensuring the safety of the leader of the free world. They are certainly essential to that end, but perhaps more importantly, they serve to project the power of the President and the country he represents, the United States. You will rarely find a more impressive sight in the modern world than 20 black vehicles traveling down a roadway carrying hundreds of armed men, Naval and Coast Guard vessels patrolling the nearby waterways, and Army helicopters patrolling overhead with Air Force fighter jets ready for a fight at a moment’s notice. The President of the United States can visit the most war-torn country on the planet in complete safety, and our Armed Forces stand ready to fight up to three full-scale wars simultaneously, anywhere on the globe.

This projection of military might is what political scientists call “hard power.” Both “hard power” and “soft power” (the use of humanitarian aid and development projects to make friends), are meant to demonstrate the United States’ capabilities to foreign powers who may be tempted to act in ways counter to our interests. Generally, the United States doesn’t flex its foreign policy muscles just to spend money (or at least we hope!) and it generally does not assist foreign nations just to be nice. Every act is weighed in the calculus of power, with the considerations and desires of the powerful first in mind.

ANCIENT POWER PROJECTION

The concept of hard power projection was not foreign to the rulers of the ancient world. Though they may have had different terminology, the language of power was one which they could all speak. This was true of the Roman powers which ruled over almost the entire Western world at the time of Jesus, and it was true of the regional powers over Judea and the local powers in Jerusalem. In fact, one act that originally was supposed to be an act of devotion on the part of the Judean king Herod Antipas, but which became an act of power projection, was his procession into the city of Jerusalem at the beginning of the feast of Passover through the eastern gate each year.(4) This procession was designed to strike awe in the throngs of pilgrims who filled the city to the brim to celebrate the festival.