{"id":36527,"date":"2017-12-20T14:30:53","date_gmt":"2017-12-20T03:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=36527"},"modified":"2022-06-27T12:17:10","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T02:17:10","slug":"leading-nowhere-trumps-national-security-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/leading-nowhere-trumps-national-security-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading to (no)where? Trump\u2019s national security strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

With great fanfare, US President Donald Trump released his government\u2019s first national security strategy<\/a>. As expected, it continues his theme of \u2018America first\u2019 and the need to restore US power and global leadership. It\u2019s also markedly different from President Barack Obama\u2019s 2015 version<\/a>, which stressed multilateralism as the preferred way of addressing major political, economic, security and environmental challenges.<\/p>\n

Instead, America\u2019s security strategy is now to be based on \u2018principled realism\u2019 and the notion that the US is in a continuous competition with both adversaries and partners. However, while there are some positives, the 2017 strategy ultimately fails to provide a coherent blueprint for restoring US leadership credentials, including in the Asia\u2013Pacific.<\/p>\n

To start with, because of Trump\u2019s erratic and impulsive character, the contradictions in the strategy are even more pronounced. As Max Boot points out<\/a>, the document \u2018reveals an administration in conflict between the isolationist impulses of the president and the more traditional, internationalist beliefs of his senior aides\u2019. There\u2019s Trump\u2019s deep-seated resentment of what he sees as illiberal trade practices by foes and friends alike. There\u2019s his lamenting about \u2018unfair burden-sharing with our allies\u2019, and his launch speech<\/a> reiterated his belief that \u2018countries [that is, allies] that are immensely wealthy should reimburse the United States for the cost of defending them\u2019. But there\u2019s also the commitment to remain engaged strategically in the \u2018Indo-Pacific\u2019 and elsewhere, to \u2018lead again on the world stage\u2019, and to push back against \u2018revisionist China and Russia\u2019.<\/p>\n

In principle, the last point is welcome news for Australia and the rest of the region. Indeed, the most refreshing part of the strategy is its discussion of China\u2019s rise and the need for the US to \u2018marshal the will and capabilities to compete and prevent unfavourable shifts in the Indo Pacific\u2019. Recognising that efforts to socialise China into becoming a responsible stakeholder in the international system, it calls out Beijing\u2019s challenge:<\/p>\n

China is using economic inducements and penalties, influence operations, and implied military threats to persuade other states to heed its political and security agenda \u2026 China presents its ambitions as mutually beneficial, but Chinese dominance risks diminishing the sovereignty of many states in the Indo-Pacific. States throughout the region are calling for sustained US leadership in a collective response that upholds a regional order respectful of sovereignty and independence.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The strategy also vows to \u2018redouble [America\u2019s] commitment to established alliances and partnerships\u2019, including with Australia. It also explicitly seeks to \u2018increase quadrilateral cooperation with Japan, Australia and India\u2019.<\/p>\n

So far, so good. Unfortunately, however, the document is less innovative on what exactly to do about China\u2019s challenge to the rules-based order and American primacy. Indeed, its prescribed actions sound almost identical to Obama\u2019s \u2018rebalance\u2019, a term the Trump administration deliberately axed once in office: strengthening alliances; deepening new relationships; a commitment to freedom of the seas and the peaceful solution of territorial and maritime conflicts; and a strong forward military presence. But more of the same is unlikely to restore allies\u2019 confidence in America\u2019s ability to check China\u2019s growing power. For instance, the strategy has hardly anything to say about fixing Trump\u2019s lacklustre approach to Southeast Asia other than helping countries to address the \u2018growing terrorist threat\u2019. For most of those nations, China is a much bigger issue.<\/p>\n

Most problematic, however, is that the strategy fails to deliver key ingredients of US leadership. The first has to do with values, or US \u2018soft power\u2019. The document \u2018celebrates America\u2019s influence in the world as a positive force\u2019 and declares that the US will \u2018lead by example\u2019. Yet, under Trump, America\u2019s global standing and influence have been in freefall<\/a> and the document doesn\u2019t provide any convincing formula for turning that around. For instance, when it speaks of international cooperation, it emphasises protecting \u2018American sovereignty\u2019, doesn\u2019t mention the United Nations once, and stresses that the US will prioritise \u2018its efforts in those organizations that serve American interests\u2019. That\u2019s hardly a winning design for global \u2018leadership\u2019\u2014witness the recent UN Security Council Resolution<\/a> on the status of Jerusalem (debated on the same day as the strategy\u2019s launch) in which the US was outnumbered 14 to 1. Moreover, while Obama cited climate change as a \u2018top strategic risk\u2019, Trump\u2019s strategy doesn\u2019t even mention this serious global security problem. Instead, it talks at length about \u2018energy dominance\u2019 in a way that signals more environmental degradation. It\u2019s unclear how and where the US intends to lead.<\/p>\n

Finally, on the economic front, the strategy\u2019s main thrust is to \u2018insist upon unfair and reciprocal economic relationships to address trade imbalances\u2019. The launch address also celebrated America\u2019s withdrawal from \u2018job-killing deals such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership\u2019\u2014a major strategic blunder<\/a> that\u2019s undermining US leadership in Asia. The strategy\u2019s emphasis on pursuing \u2018bilateral trade agreements on a fair and reciprocal basis\u2019 is short-sighted and fails to recognise that America will likely further lose economic and strategic ground in the region<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With great fanfare, US President Donald Trump released his government\u2019s first national security strategy. As expected, it continues his theme of \u2018America first\u2019 and the need to restore US power and global leadership. It\u2019s also …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":36531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,1428,308,2070],"class_list":["post-36527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-national-security-strategy","tag-us-foreign-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeading to (no)where? 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