What to Make of Trump’s National Security Strategy?
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Monroe Doctrine
12 min read
The article explicitly references 'Monroe Doctrine redux' to describe Trump's approach. Understanding the original 1823 doctrine—its assertion of American hegemony in the Western Hemisphere and opposition to European intervention—provides essential historical context for evaluating whether the comparison is apt.
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Liberal international order
16 min read
The debate centers on whether to abandon or preserve the 'liberal world order' that Perry argues 'delivered unprecedented peace and prosperity.' Understanding the post-WWII institutional framework—Bretton Woods, NATO, UN system—clarifies what's actually at stake in this policy shift.
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Realism (international relations)
16 min read
Du Quenoy explicitly praises the strategy as 'a masterstroke of realist diplomacy' while Perry describes a 'Hobbesian world.' Understanding realist theory—from Thucydides through Morgenthau to Mearsheimer—illuminates the intellectual framework being invoked and debated.
Trump recently released his national security strategy, an administration’s outline for policy usually issued once per presidential term. I am reproducing here my debate in Newsweek on the 33-page document with Paul du Quenoy, president of the Palm Beach Freedom Institute. Basically it tones down concerns about Russia and China and is absurdly hostile to America’s European allies, replacing decades of values-driven policy (at least in part, at least at times) with a purely transactionist approach (without any concerns for the crises in climate, AI, social media and so on).
Above, as well, is my TV appearance on this sordid business today.
But before that, great news! We are extending our 20% off holiday discount to New Years! You unlock full access and commenting rights and get to commission content on occasion.
Dan Perry: The only good thing I can say about the new national security strategy is that it is non-binding and unenforceable. On the downside it is basically a manifesto that rips what little mask was left off what the Trump administration seeks to do in the world: It displays open disdain for our European allies, shrugs at the principles of liberal democracy and betrays fidelity to the tech bros’ crusade against desperately needed regulation of their platforms, on the misleading grounds of “free speech.” It imagines a Hobbesian world in which America simply throws its weight around under a sort of Monroe Doctrine redux, shedding the obligations of multilateralism and abandoning any pretense of leading the free world. It’s nothing short of tragic, an own goal that is devastating to America’s brand, doing its damage with ignorance of history and breathtaking arrogance sprinkled on for good measure.
Paul du Quenoy: Carefully considering the realities of the current world, the Trump administration’s new national security strategy is a masterstroke of realist diplomacy adapted for 21st century America and its needs. Trump has intelligently identified and eliminated tired and ineffective liberal internationalist tropes from our diplomacy, abjured destructive wars of foreign intervention, fore-fronted the security of the United States and its borders in our hemisphere and beyond, committed American soft power to restoring Europe’s beleaguered nation-states, opened paths to constructive engagement with decidedly lesser but potent nuclear-armed adversaries and employed effective to disarm and downscale unproductive and anti-American international institutions. While his critics bewail the new strategy—curiously for being in their view both backwardly isolationist and ...
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