During a recent public discussion Secretary of State Blinken characterized the just-issued National Security Strategy (NSS) as: “Rarely have so many in Government worked for so long on something read by so few.”
Very true – unless someone is an insomniac or an unapologetic policy wonk.
The NSS is supposedly a report, required by law, submitted annually from the President to Congress, articulating the Executive Branch’s national security vision and laying out how America’s powers are to be used to achieve those goals. It should also discuss US global interests, commitments, and defense capabilities needed for our security.
No recent administration has produced an annual report, preferring to prepare one per Presidential term – usually one year in. Biden waited two years – making his less a “roadmap” and more a political document meant to garner public support for many of his policies, domestic as well as foreign.
Unlike Trump’s version -- which was widely criticized by the foreign policy establishment, less for what it contained than for who issued it – Biden’s has received generally positive reviews. Interestingly (and encouragingly), though, Biden has kept two major focus areas from Trump’s foreign policy: the overarching importance of Global Power Competition (GPC) and the value of the Abraham Accords which opened cordial relations between Israel and Arab countries who had previously been bitter enemies.
On the positive side, the new NSS does describe the world in realistic terms: The Post World War 2 system has ended, and America will have to compete – most notably with China – to make sure the emerging world meets our priorities of a “free, open, prosperous, and secure international order.” The world today features stark competition between democracies and autocracies, and to make sure America’s values prevail, we will need to strengthen our collaboration with like-minded nations by strengthening existing alliances and building new coalitions. While we will need to out-compete China, we’ll have to constrain Russia – a disruptive fading power with destructive designs. (The report does stress that our problems are with these governments, not the people.)
The NSS also highlights transnational factors – climate, biohazards, pandemics, inflation, cyberspace, nuclear proliferation, terrorism and global hunger – which requires us to work with nations which may be hostile to our values. For the first time, the NSS also specifies that Taiwan’s status must not be changed “unilaterally,” and that the US will provide for its defense. To advance all these goals, the NSS states the need for us to strengthen and modernize our military, fully engage our diplomats, and invest in industries and technologies which will assure our continuing pre-eminence.
While the NSS is a comprehensive document, its usefulness is questionable. Simply laying out what the administration sees as all of America’s global needs is an exercise in “when everything is a priority, nothing is a priority.” One of my major criticisms of our foreign policy, from my many years of service in the State Department, is that our entire foreign policy establishment seems to prioritize “process” and focus on producing papers (such as the NSS) and not results.
For example, the Africa section, a subject I am quite familiar with, entitled “Build 21st Century US -- Africa Partnerships,” lists a worthwhile compendium of desiderata, but which are so beyond the capabilities of our diplomats and military to achieve with current resources that it enters the realm of science fiction. So, when the President says “nothing is beyond our capacity” he is again in the land of prancing unicorns and leprechauns guarding pots of gold at the end of the rainbow. No, Mr. President, our capacity is limited, so a realistic NSS needs to clearly prioritize our strategic objectives and base our approach on how to achieve them through the resources we actually have available. That is leadership.
Ambassador Tibor Nagy was most recently Assistant Secretary of State for Africa after serving as Texas Tech’s Vice Provost for International Affairs and a 30-year career as a US Diplomat. Follow him on Twitter @TiborPNagyJr