The White House will make public its national security strategy. This document will be viewed as just another bureaucratic exercise in many quarters, both inside and outside of government, with little bearing on the blizzard of issues President Joe Biden and his senior team are dealing with. The tendency in Washington to play it safe and stick to tried-and-true formulas from the past may be especially strong among administration officials who see Biden’s presidency as a return to normalcy after four turbulent years under former President Donald Trump. The White House may thus be tempted to use the strategy as a domestic political tool, bringing up the familiar (and seemingly endless) array of international challenges alongside an equally familiar set of U.S. concerns.
However, what the president says in his national security strategy is important. A strategy that is overly simplistic or lacks realism about the constraints that the US now faces would be a missed opportunity. A better approach would be a concise and realistic statement focused on the essentials to help policymakers navigate the turbulent waters ahead, while also laying the groundwork for the National Defense Strategy and other top-line strategy documents. Without sounding alarmist or defeatist, Biden’s strategy can be forthright about how core US interests are shifting and the implications for US foreign and security policy.
If the Biden strategy sends a single message, it should be that domestic renewal in America is not only a necessary end in itself, but also a prerequisite for successful foreign policy.
Renewal is critical for several reasons, including the fact that the US economy is the primary source of the country’s global power and that domestic polarisation undermines the coherence of US foreign policy.
The way the Biden administration frames the relationship between domestic renewal and its immediate priorities for economic policy overseas will be a major challenge in any discussion of domestic renewal. The administration is acutely aware of how domestic polarisation is exacerbated by economic insecurity and other international pressures. It places a strong emphasis on making American foreign policy serve the needs of the American middle class reflect this concern.
