Trump's chronic grievances rather than a national security strategy

By Shafei Moiz Hali

On Monday, US President Donald Trump unveiled his administration's "National Security Strategy" at the Ronald Reagan Building of the International Trade Center in Washington D.C. The tradition of presenting the national security strategy to congress was started back in 1987 by then President Ronald Reagan. Trump's national security strategy is the 17th overall in the history of the US. In my opinion as a professor of governance and foreign policy, what sets this strategy apart from the previous 16 is that Trump's plan seems more like a strategy filled with whining, with an attempt to provocatively showcase the world in the same light as that of the cold war era politics. 

US President Donald Trump speaks and lays out a national security strategy that envisions nations in perpetual competition, reverses Obama-era warnings on climate change, and de-emphasizes multinational agreements, in Washington, Monday, Dec. 18, 2017.[Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta]

In his speech, President Trump called China and Russia "rival powers" and "competitors." China has always defined the relationship as a "partnership" rather than a relationship of "competition," and Chinese leadership has strived rigorously to maintain this relationship as a partnership. This is exactly why the foreign ministries of various countries have lashed out towards trump's national security strategy. Iran's foreign ministry termed the Trump strategy as "imbalanced" and "one-sided," and a spokesperson from the ministry stated, "the unwise content of this imbalanced and one-sided strategy clearly shows that the U.S. government is trying to play the blame game in the face of challenges, dysfunctions and self-created problems it has always been dealing with in the domestic and international arena."

The foreign ministry of Pakistan released a statement on the 19th of December stating, "The US strategy has made certain unsubstantiated allegations towards Pakistan. Pakistan rejects such unfounded accusations that belie facts on the ground and trivialize Pakistan's efforts for fighting terrorism, and our unmatched sacrifices to promote peace and stability in the region."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that, "A quick read of the parts of the strategy that mention our country ... shows an imperialist character."

Hua Chunying, spokeswoman for China's foreign ministry, stated; "We urge the US side to stop deliberately distorting China's strategic intentions and abandon such outdated concepts as the Cold War mentality and the zero-sum game - otherwise it will only end up harming itself as well as others." 

Even the media within the US is picking apart Trump's national security strategy and Roger Cohen of the New York Times termed the strategy as a "Farce" and he quotes a European ambassador who stated, "It's impossible to know what the United States position is on any number of subjects," We could go sleepwalking into a war."

As mentioned above that, Trump's strategy mirrors a strategy full of whining and complaining because it fails to address the failures of US foreign policies. And rather than outlining corrective measures, it is a document full of insecurities earmarked by nifty new terms like "national security innovation base." These insecurities are justified by puerilely blaming everyone else rather than owning up to America's own responsibilities. The strategy document resonates along the same lines as that of the "America first policy." The part about blaming others and calling out China and Russia as "rivals" and "competitors" seems petty. The strategy highlights the securing of intellectual property rights as if China is going to steal them by hacking. The US has been complaining for quite some time regarding cyber security, intellectual property rights, economic security, and playing the age old blame game with China but it fails to eat humble pie when it comes to the US's own endeavors to hack in to Chinese servers. When we look at NORSE cyber-attack maps, it clearly shows the number of attempted cyber-attacks against China, with most of them originating from the US, thus the nifty new terms like, "national security innovation base" mentioned in Trump's National Security Strategy seem hypocritical.  

To conclude, the world knows now the gap between what Mr. Trump has said regarding China as compared to what his actions have been regarding China. His actions significantly differ from his words. Monday's speech follows the same trend. Evidence of this difference can be gauged by taking a look at what he used to say during his campaign days as compared to his actions today. During the days of campaigning Mr. Trump lashed out to China and termed China as responsible for stealing American jobs. Upon his first state visit to China, a new Trump was visible and his words took a U-turn and were full of "utmost respect" for China and President Xi Jinping. 

(Dr. Shafei Moiz Hali studied at George Mason University, Virginia, USA and specialized in the field of International Commerce and Policy. He did his PhD from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China specializing in Chinese foreign policy focusing on the Belt and Road Initiative and energy issues. Currently Dr. Hali is working as an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Contemporary Studies, National Defence University (NDU) Islamabad, Pakistan.)