The Trump administration has released its new National Security Strategy, signaling a potential shift in American foreign policy. The document, published Friday, outlines a vision prioritizing non-intervention and an “America First” approach.
Nearly every US administration issues a National Security Strategy, serving as a comprehensive statement defining how the United States views the world, identifies threats and opportunities, and intends to protect its interests. This tradition stems from the National Security Act of 1986, which mandates the White House to provide Congress with a periodic document explaining the major trends in foreign and defense policy. It serves as a reference for setting the priorities of the American administration, whether in terms of identifying adversaries, the form of military force to be used, or the role of alliances.
The release of a new strategy is not merely a routine matter for US administrations; it reveals a shift in the United States’ perspective on how to shape its place in the global order.
Key Changes in the New Strategy:
Trump’s new strategy reveals a relative departure from the approach that prevailed from the end of the Cold War until the first version of “America First” during Trump’s first presidential term in 2017. Instead of starting from the idea of American leadership of a liberal international order based on expanding alliances and multilateral institutions, the document starts from the idea that the world is composed of sovereign nation-states, each primarily concerned with protecting its borders, identity, and economic interests.
In this context, the new strategy blames what it describes as the “foreign policy elites” for wasting American power in long wars in the Middle East, in the ill-considered expansion of security commitments in Europe and Asia, and in condoning the effects of globalization on the American middle class.
Perhaps the most significant change is that the issue of immigration is now at the heart of the concept of national security, linking border security, organized crime, drugs, and pressure on the economy.
