As might be expected, the document is peppered with Trumpian catchphrases, e.g., “America First,” “making America great again,” and restoring “warrior ethos.” The accidental comedy is compounded by its use of inscrutable phrases such as “flexible realism” as well as its recurrent sycophancy toward President Donald Trump’s “visionary and realistic approach to diplomacy.”
Last Friday, the U.S. Defense Department unceremoniously released a new National Defense Strategy (NDS). After a week of extraordinary tumult in U.S. foreign policy, the document received little attention—but it’s worth a second look, if only as a window into the vapidity and shortsightedness of the Trump administration’s approach to national security.
Last Friday, the U.S. Defense Department unceremoniously released a new National Defense Strategy (NDS). After a week of extraordinary tumult in U.S. foreign policy, the document received little attention—but it’s worth a second look, if only as a window into the vapidity and shortsightedness of the Trump administration’s approach to national security.
As might be expected, the document is peppered with Trumpian catchphrases, e.g., “America First,” “making America great again,” and restoring “warrior ethos.” The accidental comedy is compounded by its use of inscrutable phrases such as “flexible realism” as well as its recurrent sycophancy toward President Donald Trump’s “visionary and realistic approach to diplomacy.”
More worrisomely, this NDS proceeds from an outright false set of assertions, as when it
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