– Europa Press/Contact/Yuri Grybas – Billiards via CNP
Madrid, December 5 (European Press) –
The new National Security Strategy presented by the White House on Friday — a document outlining the Trump administration’s foreign policy guidelines — presents “restoring dominance” to the United States in the West as a priority goal; A complete defense of the description of the Monroe Doctrine that the US President announced this week: “It is the American people, not foreign nations, nor global institutions, who will control the destiny of our hemisphere.”
The United States, in general, talks about restoring all of its “hard power” tools, both economic and military, to achieve this goal. The document explains that the United States must “reconsider” its military presence in the hemisphere while “prioritizing its trade diplomacy” through “powerful tools such as tariffs and reciprocal trade agreements.”
Washington summarizes its strategy in two phrases: “expansion and recruitment.” “We will enlist our allies across the hemisphere to control migration, stop drug trafficking, and promote stability and security on land and at sea. We will expand by cultivating and strengthening new partners, while strengthening our nation’s attractiveness as the Western Hemisphere’s economic and security partner of choice,” the document reads.
Although the document gives primary weight to the Western Hemisphere, it also addresses the new American strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Africa, through the initiative to “rebalance the economic relationship with China,” stabilize the security situation in the case of the second scenario, and move, in the African case, from a relationship focused on delivering aid and “spreading liberal ideas” on the continent, to a relationship focused on trade and economics.
Resetting the situation in the West
The goal of the military “realignment” announced by the United States is to “address urgent threats” posed by “drug trafficking and illegal or unwanted immigration.” As it has done for months, the United States will continue to use “targeted deployments to secure borders and defeat gangs, including, when necessary, the use of lethal force, to replace the failed exclusive law enforcement strategy of recent decades.”
Although the United States finds “difficulty in reflecting some foreign influence” in Latin America, it also sees opportunity in governments that do not align ideologically with these powers, but rather build their relationship on economic terms that Washington can improve, using economics as a weapon to offer a more beneficial alliance.
Regarding Europe, the United States sees “some European officials” displaying “unrealistic expectations” regarding the war in Ukraine, and has highlighted the restoration of strategic relations with Russia as a priority, thus bridging the gap between Europe and Russia, which, in Washington’s view, is the best example of the “lack of self-respect” and the threat of “erasure” currently affecting “European civilization.”
“We want Europe to remain European, to regain its self-respect as a civilization, and to abandon its failed approach in favor of stifling regimes,” the document said, before setting up the war in Ukraine as a representative case.
Economy in the Indo-Pacific region, and peace in the Middle East
The economic aspect noted in the document is perfectly reflected in the section devoted to new lines of action in the Indo-Pacific region. Regarding a “balanced” relationship with China, the United States proposes a “strong and continued focus on deterrence to prevent war” in the region, without mentioning Taiwan or the numerous territorial disputes between the countries that share those waters, including China.
“This joint approach could become a virtuous circle, as stronger US deterrence opens the way for more disciplined economic action, increasing US resources to maintain long-term deterrence and reducing regulatory hurdles,” he said.
Regarding the Middle East, the United States sees the situation as “less problematic than the headlines suggest.” According to Washington, Iran has been “weakened” after the joint US-Israeli attack last summer, the leaders of the Palestinian Hamas movement have “weakened or disappeared”, and the “potential problem” posed by Syria in cooperation with Israel, Turkey and Arab allies could disappear.
Notably, the United States declares that “the dominance of the Middle East over American foreign policy, both in long-term planning and day-to-day execution, is over” because it “is no longer the constant source of discomfort and potential scene of impending disaster that it once was.”
Therefore, within this relative diplomatic distance, the new American security strategy will abandon “the unfortunate American experience of intimidating these countries – especially the Gulf monarchies – into abandoning their traditions and historical forms of government.”
“We must encourage and applaud reforms when and where they arise naturally, without trying to impose them from outside,” the document stressed.