The US National Security Strategy in 6 points – Geopolitics with Alex Stubb
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of 'Geopolitics with Alex,' the U.S. National Security Strategy, a 50-page document from October, is discussed. Alex provides a detailed summary, emphasizing the document's six main points. The strategy outlines America's intent to lead globally, engage with allies, and address strategic competition, particularly with China. It highlights a new international order shaped by competition and cooperation, focusing on shared challenges like climate, health, and security. The document underscores the U.S. commitment to alliances, modernization, and a prosperous, secure world order.
Takeaways
- 📜 The U.S. National Security Strategy, published in October, is a 50-page document that outlines America's current foreign policy and strategic goals.
- 🌐 The document is straightforward and transparent, emphasizing America's leadership role and engagement on the global stage.
- 🇺🇸 The strategy highlights the importance of alliances, especially with Europe and the Indo-Pacific region, to counter threats from Russia and China.
- 🏛️ America aims to lead with values, promoting a world that is free, open, prosperous, and secure.
- 🗺️ The document identifies two main strategic challenges: the competition for a new international order post-Cold War and the need for cooperation on transnational issues like food security and climate change.
- 🤝 The U.S. seeks coalitions with countries that share its values while acknowledging that it won't shape the world entirely in its image.
- 🔍 China is viewed as the most consequential geopolitical challenge, while Russia is described as reckless, particularly in its actions in Ukraine.
- 🌎 The U.S. strategy involves investing in power and influence, building coalitions, and modernizing its military to maintain global leadership.
- 📈 The six pillars of the strategy include no dividing line between foreign and domestic policy, alliances, the challenge of China, broad engagement globally, rethinking globalization, and finding partners who share the U.S. vision.
- 🎯 Global priorities include out-competing China and Russia, supporting Ukraine, preventing nuclear escalation, and addressing traditional transnational problems.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the U.S. National Security Strategy document discussed in the video?
-The main focus of the U.S. National Security Strategy document is to outline the strategic approach of the United States in addressing national security concerns, particularly emphasizing competition with China and Russia, alliances with Europe and the Indo-Pacific, and the promotion of a free, open, prosperous, and secure international order.
Why does the speaker recommend reading the U.S. National Security Strategy document?
-The speaker recommends reading the U.S. National Security Strategy document because it provides a comprehensive and direct picture of America's current geopolitical thinking, as articulated by the Biden administration, and is useful for anyone interested in geopolitics and global politics.
How does the document describe the current global landscape?
-The document describes the current global landscape as being at an inflection point, with vital interests of the United States at stake, and characterized by geopolitical competition and shared challenges.
What is the general approach of the U.S. as outlined in the document?
-The general approach of the U.S. is to take the lead in global affairs, engage with allies and partners, and address strategic competition, particularly with China, while promoting values such as democracy, openness, prosperity, and security.
What does the document say about the competition between the U.S. and China?
-The document states that there is a strategic competition between the U.S. and China, with China challenging the international order as we know it. This competition is expected to shape the new international order.
How does the document address the relationship between domestic and foreign policy?
-The document emphasizes that there is no dividing line between foreign and domestic policy, indicating that domestic policy is integral to the overall strategic approach of the United States.
What are the key pillars of the U.S. National Security Strategy?
-The key pillars of the U.S. National Security Strategy include: alliances and partnerships, competition with China, broad engagement in global affairs, modernizing and strengthening the military, promoting globalization with a focus on beyond traditional free trade agreements, and finding partners who share the U.S. vision of the world.
How does the document describe Russia's role in the current global order?
-The document describes Russia as a reckless power that rejects the post-Cold War order and poses a significant challenge to global security, particularly through its actions in Ukraine.
What are the global priorities of the U.S. according to the document?
-The global priorities of the U.S. include out-competing China and Russia, cooperating on issues like the economy, climate, and health, supporting Ukraine, strengthening NATO, and addressing traditional transnational problems such as terrorism, organized crime, and corruption.
What does the document say about the future rules on technology and cyber issues?
-The document emphasizes the importance of establishing future rules on technology, cyber issues, trade, and the economy, noting that decisions made in these areas will have long-term ramifications.
Outlines
🌍 Overview of U.S. National Security Strategy
The episode introduces the U.S. National Security Strategy, a 50-page document released in October, emphasizing its significance in understanding current American geopolitical thinking. The document includes a preface by President Joe Biden, using strong language about global inflection points, vital U.S. interests, and geopolitical competition. The summary will cover an introduction, six key points, and a conclusion.
🇺🇸 America's Approach to Global Leadership
The first point discusses America's general approach to global leadership, emphasizing continued engagement and leadership in contrast to the Trump administration. It highlights a strategic competition with China, the necessity of alliances, and the promotion of values like democracy and security. America seeks to lead with allies sharing common values and interests, aiming for a world that is free, open, prosperous, and secure.
🛡️ Competition and Future International Order
The second point covers the strategic competition shaping the future international order. It describes the current decade as decisive, marking the end of the post-Cold War era and the emergence of a new period. The U.S. aims to maintain a liberal world order while addressing shared transnational challenges such as food security, pandemics, and terrorism. This competition requires cooperation on global issues despite strategic rivalries.
🌐 U.S. Position and Global Coalitions
The third point examines the U.S. position and its efforts to build coalitions with countries sharing its values. The focus is on maintaining alliances with Europe, the Indo-Pacific, and other regions, countering the influence of China and Russia. The document highlights the challenges posed by these competitors and the importance of cooperation to address transnational issues, aiming to prevent competition from escalating into conflict.
🔍 Overview of U.S. Strategic Approach
The fourth point provides an overview of the U.S. strategic approach, aiming for a free, open, prosperous, and secure international order. It emphasizes investing in power and influence, building coalitions, and modernizing the military. The U.S. seeks to promote universal rights, open rule-making, raising global living standards, and ensuring security from aggression and coercion.
🗝️ Key Pillars of U.S. National Security Strategy
The fifth point outlines the six key pillars of the U.S. National Security Strategy: 1) Integrating foreign and domestic policy, 2) Strengthening alliances and partnerships, 3) Addressing the geopolitical challenge posed by China, 4) Engaging broadly beyond geopolitical competition, 5) Emphasizing the benefits of globalization while moving beyond traditional free trade agreements, and 6) Finding global partners sharing the U.S. vision. These pillars reflect the U.S. commitment to global engagement and competition.
🌎 Global Priorities and Future Vision
The final point highlights the global priorities of the U.S., focusing on out-competing China and Russia while cooperating on economy, climate, and health issues. It stresses the importance of shaping future rules on technology, cyber, trade, and economy. The conclusion reflects on the document's comprehensive overview of U.S. security and political thinking, emphasizing the shift towards a multipolar world and the necessity of international cooperation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡National Security Strategy
💡Geopolitical Competition
💡Strategic Competitor
💡International Order
💡Alliances and Partnerships
💡Transnational Challenges
💡Free, Open, Prosperous, and Secure
💡Liberal World Order
💡Cold War
💡Global Priorities
Highlights
The U.S. national security strategy is a 50-page document published in October that provides insight into the current administration's geopolitical stance.
The document is introduced by President Joe Biden and uses strong language about the world being at an inflection point and the vital interests of the United States.
Unlike previous administrations, the current strategy is straightforward and direct, clearly outlining America's foreign policy objectives.
The strategy emphasizes that the U.S. aims to lead but will do so with cooperation from allies and partners who share its values.
Strategic competition, particularly with China, is a key theme, and the document asserts that this competition will shape the new international order.
The strategy advocates for leading with values and aligning with allies that share American interests, emphasizing a free, open, prosperous, and secure world.
The U.S. aims to build strong alliances in both Europe and the Indo-Pacific region to counter threats from Russia and China.
The strategy acknowledges the end of the post-Cold War era, describing the current period as a decisive decade for shaping the future international order.
The U.S. seeks to maintain a liberal world order with norms and rules, despite recognizing shared transnational challenges like food security, disease, and terrorism.
America's position involves forming coalitions with like-minded countries and addressing global challenges cooperatively.
The strategy describes Russia as a reckless power and China as a significant competitor, emphasizing the need to prevent competition from escalating into conflict.
Transnational challenges, such as climate change, energy, and health, are highlighted as areas where global cooperation is necessary.
The U.S. aims to invest in power and influence, build coalitions, and modernize and strengthen its military.
The six key pillars of the strategy include the integration of foreign and domestic policy, alliances and partnerships, competition with China, broad engagement, nuanced globalization, and finding partners globally.
The document outlines global priorities, including out-competing China and Russia while cooperating on transnational issues like climate and health.
The strategy treats the European Union as a single entity and emphasizes the importance of shaping future rules on technology, cyber, trade, and the economy.
The U.S. national security strategy provides a comprehensive overview of America's geopolitical thinking and commitments in 2022.
Transcripts
foreign
Welcome to our next episode The
geopolitics with Alex and today we will
actually be tackling the U.S national
security strategy which is basically a
50-page document that was published in
October I warmly recommend for anyone
who is interested in geopolitics and
global politics at the moment to read
that document because it gives a really
good picture of what America is thinking
at the moment and namely of course the
administration of President Joe Biden
now if you don't want to read it you
should probably stay online and listen
to how I summarize the actual document
and I'll do it by giving you a little
bit of an introduction and then six
points and the conclusion which
basically outlines the content of of the
document first of all the document
Itself by way of introduction has a
preface by Joe Biden and it it uses a
lot of very strong language about the
world being at an inflection point about
the vital interests of the United States
and about
geopolitical competition and and and
shared challenges it sort of sets the
scene of how the president actually
views the document and the world I
actually think that it's a very open and
direct document I've been involved
myself when in Finland we were doing
similar security political assessments
and we sort of always had to be quite
quiet quite sort of careful with the
types of language that we wanted to use
you know we'd have okay what are we
going to say on NATO what are we going
to say on the European Union what are we
going to say on Russia what are we going
to say on on the U.S so by way of
contrast I think this is very much a
straightforward and you don't really
have to second guess
what America is thinking when it comes
to foreign policy so here we go uh what
are the six points the the first one
is what I call a general uh approach so
what is the general American approach
and you'll see that there's going to be
a lot of repetition because these types
of documents have a tenders to be a
little bit repetitive but the starting
point that I see is is that you know
America still wants to take the lead and
it is very much engaged so unlike
perhaps what we saw with the Trump
Administration where there was very much
you know coming back home uh this one is
that America needs to show leadership
and it needs to be engaged at the same
time it's probably more humble than
these types of documents have been in
the past in the sense that it doesn't
suggest that it will lead by itself it
says that it will lead will those that
want to cooperate
It also says very straightforward that
strategic competition
is about to shape the new international
order so it says that there is a
strategic competition and I'll talk
about it a lot today it is a competition
between the United States and China and
China is challenging the international
order as we know it and this will shape
the international order
it also says that America wants to lead
with values it says that it wants to
lead with the Allah allies that have
shared interest with the United States
so it very much puts values and
interests in the same basket and I I
would argue that this comes obviously
from The Narrative that the U.S has been
pushing for the past few years that
we've entered a world with really two
polls democracy and autocracy I
personally think the world is a little
bit more complicated than that but I
think it's very much with the line of of
the document so wants to see a world
that is and I quote free open prosperous
and secure now in order to achieve a
world which is free open prosperous and
secure it argues that it has two
alliances or uh sets of allies that it
wants to work with very closely one is
the traditional one Europe and the other
one is the in the Pacific so these are
the sort of strategic players that
America wants to deal with and the
obvious reason is that there's a link to
Russia and to China so in Europe the
link is to Russia and containing Russia
and defeating Russia in in the war
against Ukraine and then in the in the
Pacific it's about containing uh China
and in many ways I would argue and I
think the document puts it quite right
that this is really a a 360 degree
strategy coming from the United States
now Point number two
uh
competition for what comes next so this
is along the lines of that we're seeing
a a strategic competition to shape the
future International order uh and and
the argument here is that this is very
much a decisive decade because the
argument is that the post-cold War era
is now over you know we had our 30 years
of Holiday from 1989 or 1991 depends on
where you think that the Cold War ended
and and the document makes the case that
that error is now over so history didn't
end not all 200 nation states in the
world reverted to democracy and uh
social market economy and globalization
and now something new is emerging it's
sort of an interim or interregnum period
an in-between period that we're looking
at but the document argues that that
this is a decisive decade about which
way the world is going to tilt the
document also says that we really have
two strategic challenges
the the one is that the Cold War is Over
and there'll be competition about who
dominates after this and of course the
Americans want to continue the liberal
world order with norms and rules the
Second Challenge is that that there is
this competition but at the same time
everyone realizes that hey we do have
shared transnational or cross-border
challenges that we have to deal with
together they are food security disease
or pandemics terrorism
energy and inflation so on one hand you
compete but on the other hand you
realize that you you have to cooperate
Point number three or key Point number
three of of this document and where does
the United States send position itself
right because this is a thing that you
know we keep on looking at we're talking
here about you know uh a superpower
especially during the Cold War but also
um a unipolar superpower uh in the
postcode or era so where does the U.S
find itself
number one it says we want to have
coalitions with those who share our
values and want to cooperate with us
that's kind of a message that listen you
know Europe we want to be with you uh
you know Australia New Zealand obviously
you know Canada
um
uh India Japan South Korea every African
country that wants to cooperate you know
we're there with you and for you if you
share values and after that it says
immediately that those countries are
going to be with us that's great but you
have to realize that we are in
competition then with the rest of course
the main target here being uh China the
approach is very much of the creation of
a free world continuing that narrative
but the interesting thing is that in
many ways I think for one of the first
times America is saying here that we
realize that the world is not going to
be shaped in the image of the United
States you see after the Cold War
America was willing and able to export
democracy either by way of example or
creating interdependencies but also by
way of force as it did for instance in
Iraq or going into war in in in
Afghanistan but here it's saying that
okay we understand that the world is not
going to be American uh but uh you know
we still want to push a free world
then the the interesting way that they
then Define sort of
one player and one real competitor
Russia it calls Reckless and that's
quite a strong statement to make of of
Russia right that it's a reckless power
and of course we've seen that attack in
Ukraine it was and has been Reckless but
China it talks about very much as a as a
competition competitor but what unites
these two is that both Russia and China
rejected the post-cold war order they
want something new I actually think that
the document should have pushed it a bit
further and understand that there are
actually a lot of countries in this
world that have rejected the post-cold
war order and the reason for that is
that they don't feel that they have a
say and they feel that the post-cold war
order is pretty much the same that we
had during the Cold War and it has been
created in the image of the West whether
it's about institutions such as the WTO
or the World Bank or or IMF or or for
instance the UN so but it does say that
you know Russia's Reckless and China is
all about competition and what they want
to do here is that they want to avoid
that competition escalates into conflict
I was especially interested in this part
because as you will know the subtitle of
my book on this order is conflict
competition and cooperation so I'm
trying to look at these three things
which one is going to dominate in the
next decade or decades or even in this
century and they keep on saying in this
report that
geopolitical competition does complicate
cooperation now does America only talk
about States in this no it doesn't
because a lot of the problems that IT
addresses in this report in this
strategy are transnational challenges
and they do mention them many times as
well by the way a little interesting in
parentheses quite often in these types
of documents you know you'd see in
Germany and France being mentioned many
times but I only counted one or two
times and interesting enough Finland and
Sweden are actually mentioned more often
and the reason of course for that is
that they are joining NATO but in the
parenthesis it also talks about
transnational challenges Point number
four what is then an overview so if the
first one was the General approach
second one competition for what comes
next third one how does the U.S position
itself then fourth what is the overview
of of the U.S approach I mentioned it
already earlier the aim is to have a
free open and prosperous and secure
International order and in order to get
that aim it suggests three things one it
will invest in power and influence so
power politics is still there number two
it will build coalitions we've seen that
of course with orcas or the quad as
examples and three it will modernize and
strengthen its military so this is a
message to anyone who wants to challenge
the U.S that here's the biggest military
in the world it still wants to continue
modernization and strengthening now but
what do these free open prosperous and
secure mean well free to the United
States means Universal Rights and
Freedoms
open to the United States means that
everyone shapes the rules this is
important
prosperous means that you raise the
living standards everywhere in the world
and secure means that we are free from
aggression
coercion and intimidation that's of
course a message to the United States
number five what then are the key
pillars of thinking and I siphoned out
from the document six key pillars
and some of this is also to a domestic
American audience number one
they argue that there is no divining
line between foreign and domestic
politics or foreign and domestic policy
you see this is a message to say that
yes we do trade but we think it's very
important that we take care of our
backyard as well number two
the pillar number second pillar is
alliances and Partnerships around the
world
pillar number three China is I quote the
most consequential geopolitical
Challenge end of quote
and after that they do say that well
we're not too worried about Russia
because it lacks capability and Iran is
important as well and a challenge but
not to the same level in China note this
is where really the United States keeps
on pitching itself
to have China as its competitor then it
also says pillar number four that the
United States will engage broadly not
only in geopolitical competition and
therefore it will focus on the Middle
East and the Gulf region obviously it
will focus on Africa and then it will
focus on the Western Hemisphere read
Latin America number five it says
globalization is good but
it argues that we should go beyond
traditional free trade agreements so
this is where we start seeing perhaps
the United States detaching itself a
little bit from you know the
international institutions such as the
WTO and perhaps getting engaged more in
bilateral type of free trade agreements
you know the the European Union of
course has done that once it saw that
the WTO is not at a dead end but it's
not able to renew itself pillar number
six
is that they're trying to find Partners
in all continents that they share their
vision of the world so in my mind if you
look at all these six pillars uh you
know it's it's very much speaking the
language of the United States that wants
to be engaged in the rest of the world
in the meanwhile we hear lots of
rhetoric about America first and you
know sorting out domestic problems but
in this document in my mind it's very
much outbound not uh inbound the final
and sixth uh point
from this document is then
um is is to highlight the so-called
Global priorities well Global priority
number one and the Americans very open
about this they want to out compete
China and Russia and they say it
um and here is where they come back to
the notion that China intends to reshape
the international order but at the same
time when it says that we need to
out-compete China the Americans say well
it's still important for us to cooperate
on the economy on climate and on Health
on Russia it's tougher it says that
Russia is Imperial it has an imperialist
foreign policy and therefore the United
States will continue to support Ukraine
support NATO and make sure that there
will be no nuclear escalation
when it talks about cooperation as
opposed to competition it does mention
climate energy food Arms Control
non-proliferation terrorism organized
crime and Corruption so very traditional
sort of transnational problems that we
need to deal with together and they do
sort of finish with the global
priorities by saying that it's very
important that we shape the future rules
on technology cyber trade and the
economy and you know one of the reasons
I actually read this document was that I
I listened to an excellent podcast by
Gideon ratchman Financial Times you can
find it on Spotify
and in it he was interviewing Thomas
Wright who is actually an irish-born a
director of strategic planning at the
National Security Council in the Biden
White House and and in that uh podcast
you will also hear because I recommend
that you you listen to it you'll hear
um Mr Wright talking about Dr Wright
talking about the importance of
establishing these rules now because you
know things that we do in artificial
intelligence or robotization technology
in general or cyber they will have
ramifications for decades to come so the
six points that I wanted to raise from
this document was the General approach
of the U.S competition for what comes
next how does the U.S position itself
overview of the U.S approach pillars of
thinking and then Global priorities and
just by way of conclusion what I find so
interesting is his document this that it
gives a very good overview of where the
United States stands in its security
political thinking in 2022 it's a broad
Vision it deals with all the different
regions it's very strong and committal
to the European Union as opposed to
specific countries in the European Union
so it for the first time really treats
the EU as one entity and no wonder
because it's the U has been dealing with
covet the war in Ukraine and with energy
but at the same time it does sort of
reinforce at least my personal idea that
we're living in a world of disorder the
Cold War was orderly and bipolar the
post-cold war was orderly in the
beginning and unipolar but as it began
to become more multiple polar coalitions
and alliances went all over the place
and that you will find in this document
as well but I do warmly recommend that
you read the U.S national security
strategy it gives you a wonderful
picture of what's going on in the world
from an American perspective at the
moment thanks for watching and listening
Weitere ähnliche Videos ansehen
Shangri-La Dialogue: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's keynote speech
تصريح صحفي للرئيس الجزائري ورئيس مجلس السيادة الانتقالي السوداني
Navigating the Personnel Security System (PSS) for Newcomers Video 2
US Can't Love Taiwan Too Much, Former CIA Official Says
If US and China Go To War, Who Loses (Hour by Hour)
An Interview With Anne-Marie Slaughter | A “President Biden's” US Foreign Policy | GZERO World
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)