Opinion

The National Security Strategy Will Work

President Donald Trump’s new National Security Strategy codifies what has already been a noteworthy shift from his predecessor’s worldview. It is the difference between “leading from behind” and actually leading.

Early on, the president established a national objective of creating “a more peaceful world, with less conflict and more common ground.” The core strategic concept in pursuit of this objective is “peace through strength.”

In doing so, the White House is returning to a time-honored strategic model. Peace through strength was the guiding concept of President Ronald Reagan’s national security strategy in the 1980s. Reagan understood that American weakness invites aggression. At the time, America’s power and prestige were severely diminished in the wake of the Vietnam War, while the Soviet Union was at the peak of its power. Pundits talked about the “hollow forces”—military capabilities that were undermanned, underfunded and undermotivated. Some saw the United States as a faded power that was past its prime, with the country on the downhill slope, never coming back.