The recently released US National Defence Strategy reveals a massive paradigm shift in the US approach at the geopolitical and geostrategic levels. The main thrust of this strategy seeks to put America and its core values and interests “first”. The emphasis is to achieve a clean break from past practices where US resources and lives were lost in “foolish, grandiose adventures abroad”. These included “nation-building projects and self-congratulatory pledges to uphold cloud-castle abstractions like the rules-based international order”, etc. The US will henceforth ostensibly desist from nation-building endeavours, interventionism, endless wars, and regime changes. The interests of US citizens will take precedence now. A realistic approach about the scale of threats the US faces,s and the resources available will be adopted. The US does not intend to act everywhere on its own or make up for the shortfalls and shortcomings of its allies everywhere. The US will now expect its allies and partners to equitably share the burden of all their joint undertakings. It will now categorise all threats as important, consequential, and/or dangerous to US interests and counter them accordingly.
The objectives of this national defence strategy are very emphatic and clear. One, defend the Homeland; two, protect US interests in the western hemisphere; three, deter China in the........

© The Nation