The Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy

At the end of 2017 the US published a new National Security Strategy (NSS), replacing the previous NSS of 2015 in record time.

The US strategy now perceived a hyper-competitive world on the horizon, very different from that seen in decades past. The NSS argued that the US should be prepared to compete in the best of conditions, beginning with its domestic scenario.

Th structure of this working paper was based on these same four pillars, but it also analysed the three broad categories of threats facing the US – at once military, political and increasingly economic – in the context of this geopolitical competition.

China and Russia – characterised as revisionist powers that challenge the power, influence and interests of the US by attempting to erode its prosperity and security – comprise the first group. In the second group were the ‘rogue regimes’ – North Korea and Iran – that pursued the possession of weapons of mass destruction, supported terrorism and destabilise. Finally, there was another group that included transnational and other criminal threats, along with terrorism.

Significantly, after more than a decade and a half, the fight against terrorism was no longer the top priority of US national security.

The new NSS aspired to move beyond ‘leading from behind’ to a deeper engagement with this increasingly tough global competition. The US would strive to regain its leadership in new technologies and innovation and to adapt to the new competition in cyberspace and outer space. This would be done while prioritising US interests under the heading of an ‘America First’ foreign policy and placing more emphasis on competition than on cooperation.