President Trump's National Security Strategy Is a Game Changer

In so many words, Trump’s 67-page summary of national security policy declares that America is a frog that will not be boiled. No doubt the report will be portrayed as war-like, although that is not its intention. “Competition does not always mean hostility, nor does it inevitably lead to conflict – although none should doubt our commitment to defend our interests. An America that successfully competes is the best way to prevent conflict. Just as American weakness invites challenge, American strength and confidence deters war and promotes peace,” the document states.

The contrast with the two previous administrations is stark. The Trump report praises American values and institutions but betrays no ambition to remake the world in America’s image after the fashion of George W. Bush. Nor does it accept the slow decline of American influence into a geopolitical mush of multilateralism per the “soft power” conceit of the Obama Administration. It is centered on the American economy, the American homeland, and American interests, but it proposes a rough-edged activism where American interests are threatened that will make the world a less predictable place during the next several years.

The report admonishes China and Russia on a number of grounds. Beijing and Moscow will take the report in stride, gauging carefully where Washington might alter the strategic balance. But the new report will cause alarm in Tehran. For the past dozen years – since Robert Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld as America’s Defense Secretary in 2006 – American policy has sought to include Iran in the regional security architecture. The Trump Administration’s strongest language is directed towards Iran, and the Shi’ite regime’s response is incalculable. Some analysts believe that Iran already is inclined to go to war with Israel, and the new report may prompt the militaries of several Middle Eastern nations to raise their level of alert.

The report embraces the term “America First,” by which Trump means that national security depends first of all on fixing what is wrong in America: a shrinking industrial base, disrepair in infrastructure, sagging innovation, inadequate scientific and technical education, and an excessive federal debt burden. Although the report promises a crackdown on forced technology transfers, intellectual property theft, and other forms of “economic aggression,” it identifies the problem and its solution in domestic US policy: tax reform, deregulation, innovation policy, budgetary controls and education.

Early press coverage already has misrepresented the report as a trade-war screed. It is nothing of the sort: on the contrary, it repudiates the complacency of the past several administrations who presided over a gradual deterioration of America’s competitive and strategic position. Trump’s opponents in both major parties pegged him as an isolationist. On the contrary: He proposes a muscular kind of global activism, fostering new alliances while reinforcing America’s existing commitments – but an activism of an entirely different order than the nation-building ambitions of the last Republican administration.

A centerpiece of Trump’s national security plan is a layered missile defense, including the capability to destroy enemy ICBM’s before launch. This portends a radical departure from previous US policy, which restricted anti-missile defense to systems that remained within the prohibitions of the 1972 ABM Treaty, despite America’s withdrawal from the treaty in 2002. What changed, the report argues, is that “rival states modernize and build up their conventional and nuclear forces. Many actors can now field a broad arsenal of advanced missiles, including variants that can reach the American homeland. Access to technology empowers and emboldens otherwise weak states,” notably North Korea.

China and Russia doubtless will react to this declaration with dismay, but the outcome is to a great extent their own fault. By aiding the North Korean missile program either by acts of commission or omission, Moscow and Beijing left the United States with no means of disarming the rogue regime in Pyongyang. They cannot blame America for taking measures to protect its homeland. Trump proposes the response to the North Korea crisis that this writer recommended in an August 11, 2017 commentary.

Read the whole report here.