President Barack Obama and his administration published the new 2015 National Security Strategy (NSS) on Feb. 6 to outline the principles and priorities the U.S. will use for global leadership and to ensure increased peace and prosperity, according to a White House fact sheet.
The last comprehensive NSS was released five years ago, which focused on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the U.S.’s priorities shift from the wars of the previous decade to the challenges of the Islamic State (IS), Ukrainian crisis and domestic terrorism, the Obama administration believes it is necessary to reevaluate U.S. global strategies to adapt to new challenges.
The 29-page strategy states the U.S. will lead with purpose, strength, capable partners, all instruments of U.S. power, a long-term perspective and by example, noting the importance of everything from a diverse populous to energy security to an unrivaled military.
“The diversity and the creativity of the American people continue to be a well-spring of American power,” Susan Rice, the U.S. national security adviser, said last Friday.
“Without us, Russia would be suffering no cost to its actions in Ukraine,” Rice said, citing examples of the positive actions the U.S. has done for the world. Rice also said Ebola would be running rampant across West Africa without America’s support, and the global community would not have a viable military campaign to combat IS.
“As powerful as we are and will remain, our resources are not infinite,” Obama said in the introduction to the NSS document, also noting that it is not the place of the U.S. to dictate the direction of every event and issue around the world, according to the Washington Post.
“We have to make hard choices among many competing priorities and we must always resist the over-reach that comes when we make decisions based on fear,” Obama said.
Most recently, the U.S. is increasing attention back to the war in Ukraine, which has claimed the lives of more than 5,300 people since April 2014, according to USA Today. While European leaders are meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a peace deal, tensions between the West and East are ever-increasing.
According to the New York Times (NYT), the U.S. is considering options that include sending arms to the Ukrainian government to aid in its fight against pro-Russian rebels in Crimea. The discussion on how much and what ways to aid Ukraine comes after the U.S. publicly accused Russia of sending military supplies and even soldiers to help the rebels.
Obama’s new NSS may come just in time to outline the new direction the U.S. will take in handling the Ukrainian crisis, which is reminiscent of Cold War problems.
“We will advance international order that promotes peace, security, and opportunity through stronger cooperation to meet global challenges by . . . strengthening our enduring commitment to a free and peaceful Europe by countering aggression and modernizing the NATO alliance to meet emerging threats,” the NSS White House fact sheet states.
According to whitehouse.gov, the NSS comes in a time when America is experiencing a “resurgence,” contrasting to the 2010 NSS, which was developed under the “Great Recession” and struggle to bring two wars to a close.
The White House reiterated the phrase “strong and sustained American leadership” to describe four basic goals for the nation’s future: maintaining the best national defense system in the world, reinforcing homeland security operations, eliminating nuclear weapons around the world and developing an international method to respond to biological threats.
“America was not built on fear,” former President Harry Truman said. “America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
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