(AFP) – President Donald Trump laid out a radical realignment of US foreign policy Friday, shifting the longtime superpower’s focus from global to regional, brutally criticizing Europe as facing “civilizational erasure” and putting a top priority on eliminating mass migration. The national security strategy, meant to flesh out Trump’s norms-shattering worldview, elevates Latin America to the top of the US agenda in a sharp reorientation from longstanding US calls to focus on Asia to face a rising China.
“In everything we do, we are putting America First,” Trump said in a preamble to the long-awaited paper. Breaking with decades of attempts to be the sole superpower, the strategy stated that the “United States rejects the ill-fated concept of global domination for itself.” It also declared that the United States would prevent other powers, namely China, from dominating, but added: “This does not mean wasting blood and treasure to curtail the influence of all the world’s great and middle powers.”
The strategy called for a “readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere,” starting with migration. “The era of mass migration must end,” the strategy asserted. It made clear that the United States under Trump would aggressively pursue similar objectives in Europe, in line with far-right parties’ agendas. In extraordinary language directed at close allies, the strategy stated that the administration would be “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations.”
Germany quickly hit back, asserting that it does not need “outside advice.” The strategy pointed to Europe’s slide in share of the global economy, largely a result of the rise of China and other emerging powers, and stated: “This economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” It warned that “Should present trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less.” As Trump seeks an end to the Ukraine war that would likely favor Russia gaining territory, the strategy accused Europeans of weakness and stated that the United States should focus on “ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.”
Trump, since returning to office in January, has ordered sweeping curbs on migration, after a political career built on fanning fears that America’s white majority is losing its status. The strategy speaks in bold terms of pressing US dominance in Latin America, where the Trump administration has been striking alleged drug traffickers at sea, intervening to bring down leftist leaders including in Venezuela, and loudly seeking to take charge of key resources such as the Panama Canal. The strategy cast Trump as modernizing the two-century-old Monroe Doctrine, in which the then young United States declared Latin America off-limits to rival powers. “We will assert and enforce a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine,” it stated.
The strategy paid comparatively little attention to the Middle East, which has long consumed Washington. Pointing to US efforts to increase energy supply at home and not in the oil-rich Gulf, the strategy noted: “America’s historic reason for focusing on the Middle East will recede.” The paper highlighted that it was a US priority for Israel to be secure, but stopped short of the fulsome language on Israel used even in the first Trump administration.
On China, the strategy repeated calls for a “free and open” Asia-Pacific region but focused more on the nation as an economic competitor. After much speculation on whether Trump would budge on Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing, the strategy made clear that the United States supports the decades-old status quo, but called on allies Japan and South Korea to contribute more to ensure Taiwan’s defense from China. The strategy predictably puts little focus on Africa, asserting that the United States should transition away from “liberal ideology” and an “aid-focused relationship” and emphasize goals such as securing critical minerals.
US presidents usually release a National Security Strategy in each White House term. The last, released by Joe Biden in 2022, prioritized winning a competitive edge over China while constraining a “dangerous” Russia.
– Shaun TANDON
© 2024 AFP
