Last week, I reported on the new National Security Strategy. This week, highlighting just the essential elements of this new strategy, here are the four main themes listed on the White House website:
The 2017 National Security Strategy (Strategy) builds on the 11 months of Presidential action to restore respect for the United States abroad and renew American confidence at home.
Strategic confidence enables the United States to protect its vital national interests. The Strategy identifies four vital national interests, or “four pillars” as:
- Protect the homeland, the American people, and American way of life;
II. Promote American prosperity;
III. Preserve peace through strength;
IV. Advance American influence.
The Strategy addresses key challenges and trends that affect our standing in the world, including:
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- Revisionist powers, such as China and Russia, that use technology, propaganda, and coercion to shape a world antithetical to our interests and values;
- Regional dictators that spread terror, threaten their neighbors, and pursue weapons of mass destruction;
- Jihadist terrorists that foment hatred to incite violence against innocents in the name of a wicked ideology, and transnational criminal organizations that spill drugs and violence into our communities.
The Strategy articulates and advances the President’s concept of principled realism.
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- It is realist because it acknowledges the central role of power in international politics, affirms that strong and sovereign states are the best hope for a peaceful world, and clearly defines our national interests.
- It is principled because it is grounded in advancing American principles, which spreads peace and prosperity around the globe.
Intrigued? You can read the full summary here.
