Biden launches US defense strategy and reinforces China as main rival

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The White House launched this Wednesday (12), after a series of delays, its new national security strategy. The center of the document reinforces what has already been inferred in just over a year and a half of Joe Biden’s administration in this area: the priorities are to contain the rise of China, stop the threats from Russia and act to repair the fractures in American society.

The text also emphasizes the importance of working with allies to defend democracy and confront authoritarianism. The 48 pages, however, do not represent major changes or mark new core foreign policy doctrines, highlighting the view that US leadership is the key to overcoming global challenges such as the climate emergency and new autocracies.

The policy is mandatory for every new American ruler and is a mixture of internal orientation, a signal of intent to allies and adversaries, and often a self-celebration of Washington’s power.

In the case of Biden, production and dissemination were delayed due to the unfolding of the Ukrainian War – its first versions, according to The New York Times, date back to December, even before the start of the Russian invasion of the neighboring country. Even with the conflict, the document makes it clear that Washington’s biggest competitor is Beijing.

“Russia poses an immediate threat to the international system by recklessly violating basic guidelines [com a guerra]”, says the text, which with the following counterpoint makes clear the American vision today: “China is the only country that seeks to reformulate the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance in this objective. .”

In this context, Biden argues that the US must lead the arms and economic race with the Asian power if it hopes to maintain its influence.

“China demonstrates the intent and, increasingly, the ability to redesign the international system in ways that tilt the field to its advantage, even as the US remains committed to handling competition responsibly,” the national security adviser said. , Jake Sullivan.

Still, the document reinforces the importance of NATO in the context of the War in Ukraine, celebrating the new unity between countries of the military alliance that Washington leads. “The US will not allow Russia or any power to seek to achieve its objectives by using or threatening to use nuclear weapons,” the text says, without detailing how this “non-permission” would take place.

In an interview on Wednesday, Sullivan said that the strategy seeks to “break the line between foreign policy and domestic policy for long-term investments”, having as a guideline a change of scenery that the document describes as “the definitive end of the post-Cold War era”. .

According to him, the decade now becomes decisive in relation to two fundamental challenges. “The first is competition between great powers to shape the future of the international order. The second is dealing with transnational challenges such as climate change, food insecurity, disease, terrorism, energy transition and inflation.”

In this sense, Biden’s policy differs somewhat from the Democratic Party’s tradition, in advocating a faster modernization of the Armed Forces and highlighting that globalization has played a role in the spread of the pandemic and disinformation and shortages in the supply chain.

The American president still faces other challenges in foreign policy, including the tariff war with Beijing initiated by Donald Trump, relations with Saudi Arabia – now with wear and tear amplified by a recent decision by OPEC+ on oil prices – and the dubious stance of the India.

The new national security document paves the way for the Pentagon to publish its defense strategy and an associated document outlining plans for the nuclear arsenal in the coming weeks. Sullivan said they will reflect “a step forward toward reducing the role of nuclear weapons” in the American vision.

“We don’t want competition to turn into confrontation or a new Cold War,” he said — although that’s more or less what was inaugurated by Donald Trump and continued by Biden.

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