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OPINION:
Out with a “rules-based international order” and in with “U.S. core national interests,” according to the U.S. National Security Strategy of 2025. The strategy was not well received by many of the 32 members of NATO. Indeed, saying goodbye to the U.S. as the guarantor of global order will be difficult for many of our allies and partners, who will now be expected to contribute more to their own defense and security.
Europe and the Middle East received lower priority in the National Security Strategy, with minimal criticism of Russia. The Western Hemisphere, however, is the primary security region for the U.S., a modern “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” with a focus on border control, mass migration, narco-trafficking and international crime and terrorism as the principal threats to our nation’s security.
The National Security Strategy, in my view, correctly focused on the importance of the Indo-Pacific region. It calls for expanding commercial and other relations with India to contribute to Indo-Pacific security. It calls on the Quad — Australia, Japan, India and the U.S. — to align its actions with allies and partners to prevent domination by any single competitor nation. The strategy cites the need for the U.S. to invest in research to preserve and advance our advantage in cutting-edge military and dual-use technology, including undersea, space, nuclear, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and autonomous systems, and the energy to fuel these domains.
The National Security Strategy — correctly, in my view — focuses on Taiwan, its dominance of semiconductor production and its direct access to the Second Island Chain, and the implications of this for the U.S. economy. The strategy is transparent in stating that deterring a conflict over Taiwan is a priority, making clear that the U.S. does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
The National Security Strategy calls on our allies and partners to allow the U.S. military greater access to their ports and other facilities, spend more on their own defense and, most important, invest in capabilities aimed at deterring aggression.
Japan and South Korea are encouraged to increase defense spending, with new capabilities to deter adversaries and protect the First Island Chain. The National Security Strategy says the U.S. will harden and strengthen our military presence in the Western Pacific. Indeed, preventing conflict requires a vigilant posture in the Indo-Pacific, a renewed defense industrial base, greater military investment from us and our allies and partners and winning the economic and technological competition over the long run.
The Indo-Pacific is the source of almost half the world’s gross domestic product and will grow over the century. It will be “among the next century’s key economic and geopolitical battlegrounds.”
The conventional wisdom, as cited in the National Security Strategy, is that China duped us into believing that by opening our markets to China and encouraging American business to invest in China, starting in 1979 when China was a poor and backward nation, we would facilitate China’s entry into the “rules-based international order.” As the National Security Strategy mentions: “This did not happen. China got rich and powerful and used its wealth and power to its considerable advantage.”
China had leaders in the 1980s and 1990s who believed in democratization, the rule of law and open elections. Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang was removed from his leadership position because, like his predecessor, Hu Yaobang, he believed in democracy and the rule of law. Zhao was removed in June 1989 because he supported the student demonstrators at Tiananmen Square, and Hu was removed, also by Deng Xiaoping, for indulging in bourgeois liberalization and advocating democracy.
A few years later, Premiers Wen Jiabao and Zhu Rongji, like Hu and Zhao before them, were advocates for democratization and free and fair elections. Similarly, there may now be other senior officials in China who advocate for democratization and the rule of law.
The National Security Strategy is a powerful document, focusing on the Western Hemisphere and the security threat to the U.S. that emanates from that region. The U.S. focus on the Indo-Pacific region and deterring aggression in the First Island Chain, while ensuring no unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, is an unambiguous goal of the Trump administration. Getting the support of regional allies and partners will be an important part of this National Security Strategy.
• The author is a former associate director of national intelligence. All statements of fact, opinion or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the U.S. government. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. government authentication of information or endorsement of the author’s views.
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