Chaitanya Jyothi Museum Opening, 2000
RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.
Countrymen,
ORBIS NON SUFFICIT
SOLUS DEUS SUFFICIT
National Security Strategy Of The United States Of America
18 December 2017
My studies in national strategy and sovereignty are here.
What I see as highlights of this 2017 NSS:
An America that successfully competes is the best way to prevent conflict. Just as American weak- ness invites challenge, American strength and confidence deters war and promotes peace.
We will compete with all tools of national power to ensure that regions of the world are not dominated by one power.
Strengthening our sovereignty — the first duty of a government is to serve the interests of its own people — is a necessary condition for protecting these four national interests. And as we strengthen our sovereignty we will renew confidence in ourselves as a nation.
We must build a culture of preparedness and resilience across our governmental functions, critical infra- structure, and economic and political systems.
We will also reform our current immigration system, which, contrary to our national interest and national security, allows for randomized entry and extended-family chain migration.
The primary transnational threats Americans face are from jihadist terrorists and transnational criminal organizations.
Jihadist terrorist organizations present the most dangerous terrorist threat to the Nation.
The United States will impose swift and costly consequences on foreign governments, criminals, and other actors who undertake significant malicious cyber activities.
Citizens must be confident in our government, but also recognize that response and recovery begins with individuals and local communities. [Thus, Civil Defense Battalions.]
Rebuilding economic strength at home and preserving a fair and reciprocal international economic system will enhance our security and advance prosperity and peace in the world.
Economic challenges at home demand that we understand economic prosperity as a pillar of national security.
The United States will seek to ensure universal access to affordable, reliable energy, including highly efficient fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewables, to help reduce poverty, foster economic growth, and promote prosperity.
These are fundamentally political contests between those who favor repressive systems and those who favor free societies.
The United States must consider what is enduring about the problems we face, and what is new. The contests over influence are timeless. They have existed in varying degrees and levels of intensity, for millennia. Geopolitics is the interplay of these contests across the globe. But some conditions are new, and have changed how these com- petitions are unfolding. We face simultaneous threats from different actors across multiple arenas — all accelerated by technology. The United States must develop new concepts and capabilities to protect our homeland, advance our pros- peri , and preserve peace.
We also incorrectly believed that technology could compensate for our reduced capacity — for the ability to field enough forces to prevail militarily, consolidate our gains, and achieve our desired political ends. We convinced ourselves that all wars would be fought and won quickly, from stand-off distances and with minimal casualties. [e.g., Donald Rumsfeld, Condo Rice, GWB, The Fraud]
The United States must retain overmatch — the combination of capabilities in sufficient scale to prevent enemy success and to ensure that America’s sons and daughters will never be in a fair fight.
We must convince adversaries that we can and will defeat them — not just punish them if they attack the United States. We must ensure the ability to deter potential enemies by denial, convincing them that they cannot accomplish objectives through the use of force or other forms of aggression.
Support for a vibrant domestic manufacturing sector, a solid defense industrial base, and resilient supply chains is a national priority.
The Department of Defense must develop new operational concepts and capabilities to win without assured dominance in air, maritime, land, space, and cyberspace domains, including against those operating below the level of conventional military conflict. We must sustain our competence in irregular warfare, which requires planning for a long- term, rather than ad hoc, fight against terrorist networks and other irregular threats.
Support for a vibrant domestic manufacturing sector, a solid defense industrial base, and resilient supply chains is a national priority.
Significant investment is needed to maintain a U.S. nuclear arsenal and infrastructure that is able to meet national security threats over the coming decades.
When faced with the opportunity to take action against malicious actors in cyberspace, the United States will be *risk informed,* but not *risk averse,* in considering our options. [Emphasis added.]
Across the *competitive landscape,* America’s diplomats are our forward-deployed political capability, advancing and defending America’s interests abroad. [Emphasis added.]
We must upgrade our diplomatic capabilities to compete in the current environment and to embrace a competitive mindset. Effective diplomacy requires the efficient use of limited resources, a professional diplomatic corps, modern and safe facilities, and secure methods to communicate and engage with local populations.
Prosperous states are stronger security partners who are able to share the burden of confronting common threats. Fair and reciprocal trade, investments, and exchanges of knowledge deepen our alliances and partnerships, which are necessary to succeed in today’s competitive geopolitical environment. Trade, export promotion, targeted use of foreign assistance, and modernized development finance tools can promote stability, prosperity, and political reform, and build new partnerships based on the principle of reciprocity.
Economic tools — including sanctions, anti-money-laundering and anti-corruption measures, and enforcement actions — can be important parts of broader strategies to deter, coerce, and constrain adversaries.
There is no arc of history that ensures that America’s free political and economic system will automatically prevail. Success or failure depends upon our actions. This Administration has the confidence to compete to protect our values and interests and the fundamental principles that underpin them.
We are not going to impose our values on others. Our alliances, partnerships, and coalitions are built on free will and shared interests. When the United States partners with other states, we develop policies that enable us to achieve our goals while our partners achieve theirs.
Stable, prosperous, and friendly states enhance American security and boost U.S. economic opportunities.
Through our words and deeds, America demonstrates a positive alternative to political and religious despotism.
The United States pursues economic ties not only for market access but also to create enduring relationships to advance common political and security interests.
The United States will promote a development model that partners with countries that want progress, consistent with their culture, based on free market principles, fair and reciprocal trade, private sector activity, and rule of law. The United States will shift away from a reliance on assistance based on grants to approaches that attract private capital and catalyze private sector activity. We will emphasize reforms that unlock the economic potential of citizens, such as the promotion of formal proper rights, entrepreneurial reforms, and infrastructure improvements — projects that help people earn their livelihood and have the added benefit of helping U.S. businesses.
Unlike the state-directed mercantilism of some competitors that can disadvantage recipient nations and promote dependency, the purpose of U.S. foreign assistance should be to end the need for it. The United States seeks strong partners, not weak ones.
U.S. development assistance must support America’s national interests. We will prioritize collaboration with aspiring partners that are aligned with U.S. interests. We will focus on development investments where we can have the most impact — where local reformers are committed to tackling their economic and political challenges.
American-led investments represent the most sustainable and responsible approach to development and offer a stark contrast to the corrupt, opaque, exploitive, and low-quality deals offered by authoritarian states.
The United States must use its diplomatic, economic, and military tools simultaneously when assisting aspiring partners. We will place a priority on economic support that achieves local and macroeconomic stability, helps build capable security forces, and strengthens the rule of law.
At the same time, it should be clear that the United States will not cede sovereign to those that claim authority over American citizens and are in conflict with our constitutional framework.
If the United States is asked to provide a disproportionate level of support for an institution, we will expect a commensurate degree of influence over the direction and efforts of that institution.
The extraordinary trajectory of the United States from a group of colonies to a thriving, industrial- ized, sovereign republic — the world’s lone superpower — is a testimony to the strength of the idea on which our Nation is founded, namely that each of our citizens is born free and equal under the law. America’s core principles, enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, are secured by the Bill of Rights, which proclaims our respect for fundamental individual liberties beginning with the freedoms of religion, speech, the press, and assembly. Liberty, free enterprise, equal justice under the law, and the dignity of every human life are central to who we are as a people.
Governments that respect the rights of their citizens remain the best vehicle for prosperity, human happiness, and peace.
The United States must marshal the will and capabilities to compete and prevent unfavorable shifts in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East.
Sustaining favorable balances of power will require a strong commitment and close cooperation with allies and partners because allies and partners magnify U.S. power and extend U.S. influence. [An vice-versa, be it noted.]
A geopolitical competition between free and repressive visions of world order is taking place in the Indo-Pacific region.
The region, which stretches from the west coast of India to the western shores of the United States, represents the most populous and economically dynamic part of the world. The U.S. interest in a free and open Indo-Pacific extends back to the earliest days of our republic. … States throughout the region are calling for sustained U.S. leadership in a collective response that upholds a regional order respectful of sovereignty and independence.
On NATO’s eastern flank we will continue to strengthen deterrence and defense, and catalyze frontline allies and partners’ efforts to better defend themselves.
The United States has learned that neither aspirations for democratic transformation nor disengagement can insulate us from the region’s [Middle East] problems.
Stable, friendly, and prosperous states in the Western Hemisphere enhance our security and benefit our economy.
This strategy is guided by principled real- ism. It is realist because it acknowledges the central role of power in international poli- tics, affirms that sovereign states are the best hope for a peaceful world, and clearly defines our national interests. It is principled because it is grounded in the knowledge that advancing American principles spreads peace and prosperity around the globe. We are guided by our values and disciplined by our interests.
Our Nation derives its strength from the American people. Every American has a role to play in this grand, national effort to implement this America First National Security Strategy. Together, our task is to strengthen our families, to build up our communities, to serve our citizens, and to celebrate American greatness as a shining example to the world. We will leave our children and grandchildren a Nation that is stronger, better, freer, prouder, and greater than ever before.
Βασιλεία του Θεού
Kingdom of God
Update 1: Austin Bay kinda gets it but not fully. He is confused about the distinction between technocrat-driven (aka rules-based) global order and national sovereignty-driven global competition. The fearful hide behind the pretense of rules — actually grim tyranny. The courageous sally forth to make their day — actually republican democracy.
Update 2: Spengler: President Trump’s National Security Strategy Is a Game Changer. I commented:
Yes, a conceptual shift, and by one order of magnitude at least. I have tried to verbalize it this way: from permanent oligarchy-driven, bureaucracy (technocrat)-executed dicta (aka rules-based global order) TO permanent national sovereignty-driven, electorate-accountable republican democracy (aka freedom).
Or: from titles of nobility TO nobility of humans, each free-born to make and fulfill their personal destiny.
Update 3: Four years ago I took the pulse of the so-called administration through a piece of dramatic historical fiction. It hold up well in the sense of accurately assessing what that so-called administration was in fact doing and why. We are fortunate they needed frequent timeouts to refresh themselves with drugs and sex. We call them leftists and globalists — technically synonyms — but really speaking, they are fantasists. Leftism/Globalism did in fact perish with the Soviet Union. It is gone. In its stead we have merely lunatics dipped in fantasies and saturated with psychotropics, as we saw comprising the last so-called administration. Vladimir Putin no less has abjured Communism, though not Mother Russia, as well he should not, for he and his countrymen are who She is.
Update 4: For the record, important historical notes on Admiral Mike Rogers, Director, National Security Agency: here and here.
Update 5: Countering China’s Militarization Of The Indo-Pacific Region
Update 6: Austin Bay: Erdogan’s Turkey and Nato
Update 7: L. Todd Wood: Putin Getting Played By China, Needs A Deal With Trump
Update 8: Contemplating Positions On Chinese Flanks
AUM NAMAH SHIVAYA
