National security

The Trump Doctrine: National Security vs. International Insecurity

As the American President, Trump's duty is to his own people first and foremost, which is why he places a heavy emphasis on restoring the US' internal economic strength and protecting against the ever-present threats of jihadist terrorism and transnational drug gangs. These goals are admirable and don't pose any danger to responsible international actors, but the problem is that the Trump Administration's attitude towards Russia and China is decidedly hostile, no matter what the policy document says about Washington's wiliness to work with them on areas of shared interest.

Both multipolar Great Powers are portrayed as strategic competitors who want to revise the existing American-led international order, which is objectively true even if the wording casts this fact in a negative light, but then the National Security Strategy goes off on several tangents describing how these two are supposedly undermining regional stability and engaging in a host of Hybrid War conspiracies across the world. Whether through what the document characterizes as information warfare or subversive economic policies, the US sees its competitors — not itself — as one of the driving factors of international instability. Moreover, the US brushes off Russia and China's serious concerns about its missile defense technology and conveniently blames Iran and North Korea for this development, both of which Washington says it will continue to thwart.