The Trump Administration’s New National Security Strategy

In December 2017, the Trump administration released the details of the new National Security Strategy (NSS). The NSS is a document prepared by the executive branch of the U.S. government. It outlines the major national security concerns of the country and how the administration plans to tackle them.

According to White House officials, the new strategy was result of the 11-month collaboration between all the major security, foreign policy, and economic agencies of the U.S. government. The NSS has four major pillars. The first one aims to “protect the homeland, the American people, and the American way of life.” This concentrates on physical threats like jihadist terrorism and threats to cyber security. It also deals with U.S. border controls and immigration policies.

The second pillar aims to promote American prosperity. It deals with the need to make “America great again.” At the core of this pillar is strengthening the domestic economy to strengthen the United States’ stature abroad.

The third part aims to promote peace through strength. It focuses on strengthening the U.S. military’s conventional, nuclear, and cyber forces. Part of this pillar also emphasizes strengthening the U.S. since “China and Russia want to shape the world antithetical to U.S. values and interests.”

The final part aims to advance American influence. It emphasizes the role of the United States as a superpower. According to the strategy, "Our America First foreign policy," it asserts, "celebrates America's influence in the world as a positive force that can help set the conditions for peace and prosperity and for developing successful societies."

The new strategy, to the surprise of many, is not controversial for what it outlines but for what it did not include — climate change as a security threat. In the last strategy which was last prepared in 2015, climate change was declared as an “urgent and growing threat to our national security.” This time, President Trump chose to drop climate change from the list of threats, enraging many Trump critics and environmentalists. This update in the strategy is a direct reversal of the Obama administration’s stand against climate change, something that President Trump has mocked and criticized repeatedly during his campaign.

Many say that the new NSS is surprisingly conventional. However, many are concerned about how the new NSS will affect the country’s relationship with China and Russia. Many also expressed concern that the U.S., being a global leader, chose to disregard climate change as a security threat.