The strategy focuses broadly on investing domestically so
the US has a modern military and is not dependent on foreign supply chains. It
also puts an emphasis on building alliances abroad to counter the influence of
adversaries like China.
“The world is at an inflection point, and the choices we
make today will set the terms on how we are set up to deal with the significant
challenges and the significant opportunities faced in the years ahead,”
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Sullivan
said the administration highlighted two major challenges that the national
security strategy needed to address. The first is competition between major
powers, pointing to both economic competition and Biden’s long-running warnings
about democracies versus autocracies.
The
second key challenge is dealing with transnational challenges like climate
change, food insecurity and infectious diseases, Sullivan added.
Underlying it all is the growing competition between the US
and China, as well as the ongoing war in Ukraine sparked by Russia’s invasion
in February.
“We
will effectively compete with the People’s Republic of China, which is the only
competitor with both the intent and, increasingly, the capability to reshape
the international order, while constraining a dangerous Russia,” the national
security strategy states.
The administration said that the US is willing to work with
any country, including our competitors, willing to constructively address
shared challenges, but officials will simultaneously pursue deeper ties with
other democracies to prove that they can deliver results.
The strategy calls for investments in emerging technologies
and modernizing the US military. It also calls for a focus on trade and shared
technology among allies in the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
Lastly,
the strategy calls for affirmative engagement across the world. It highlights
the US interest in the Indo-Pacific to counter Chinese influence; notes the
importance of engagement in Africa to address global problems; and it calls
greater integration in the Middle East critical to advancing peace efforts.
The release of the national security strategy was delayed
from earlier this year in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with officials
unsure how that development might shift the administration’s priorities and
planning.
The strategy is largely used for budgeting purposes and for
national security agencies to get their priorities in line with the current
administration. The White House last year released interim guidance that
pivoted away from the Trump administration’s “America First” strategy and
focused instead on global cooperation to take on China and fight the COVID-19
pandemic.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has taken center stage in
much of the administration’s national security efforts, particularly in recent
weeks as Russian President Vladimir Putin escalates his rhetoric and
actions with missile strikes in Ukrainian cities and thinly veiled references
to nuclear weapons — and some overt ones.
The
administration is also in the middle of a potential upheaval in its
relationship with Saudi Arabia after OPEC Plus — a coalition of oil producing
nations that the kingdom is part of — announced it would slash supply by 2
million barrels per day.
Biden said
in an interview on Tuesday with CNN that Saudi Arabia would face consequences
for the decision, but he declined to offer a timeline for a decision or what
the repercussions might be.
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