December 19, 2017•Update: December 19, 2017
By Michael Hernandez
WASHINGTON
President Donald Trump unveiled his first national security strategy Monday, placing a strong emphasis on "American first" in a move mirroring his campaign rhetoric.
"Our leaders engaged in nation-building abroad, while they failed to build up and replenish our nation at home," Trump told federal employees at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. "With the strategy I am announcing today, we are declaring that America is in the game and America is going to win."
The strategy focuses on four main pillars: protecting the homeland, the American people, and American way of life; promoting American prosperity; preserving peace through strength and advancing American influence.
The congressionally-mandated document cites three key challenges, including "revisionist powers" seeking to undo the global order, regional dictators, and "Jihadist terrorists that foment hatred to incite violence against innocents in the name of a wicked ideology" while downplaying the centrality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in understanding regional instability.
"For generations, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been understood as the prime irritant preventing peace and prosperity in the region. Today, the threats from jihadist terrorist organizations and the threat from Iran are creating the realization that Israel is not the cause of the region’s problems. States have increasingly found common interests with Israel in confronting common threats," according to the document.
The strategy classifies Russia and China as "revisionist powers" citing their use of "technology, propaganda, and coercion to shape a world antithetical to our interests and values."
Trump said the U.S. will seek a "great partnership" with Beijing and Moscow. He cited recent intelligence sharing that thwarted a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg, Russia, and which drew praise from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
As expected, the new strategy no longer designates climate change as a national security threat -- breaking with the Obama administration's understanding, as well as that of Defense Secretary James Mattis who reportedly told lawmakers in written testimony it is effecting stability in areas where American forces are operating.
Commenting on his decision to withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris Climate Accord, Trump said the "job-killing" agreement is "very expensive and unfair".
