President Donald Trump’s administration released its National Security Strategy without much fanfare last Thursday by posting it to the White House website at 10:30 p.m. It is unclear how important the document will be in dictating policy, given the administration’s chaotic approach to decision-making. However, it provides insight into the worldview of an administration that seeks to define itself differently from its predecessors, both Democratic and Republican, while claiming the ability to achieve an outsized greatness, confidence and future role for America.
The document has already been criticized for many reasons. To begin with, it is badly written and contradictory, as it seemingly tries to please warring factions within the administration. It is also a fundamental realignment of U.S. foreign policy, stripped of any moral bearings or values. For America’s role in Asia, however, it is a particularly jarring read.
First, it repudiates the foundations of America’s past engagement with China while laying out an idealistic and unrealistic new policy that, though ostensibly based on mutual benefit, locks in American primacy in global politics and trade. It then fails to explain why Beijing, given its newfound strength and confidence, would participate in such a one-sided relationship that bolsters the U.S. while containing China.