The US President is currently most concerned about the threat posed by Russian nuclear weapons. Joe Biden currently sees the world as close to Armageddon as he has not been since the Cuban Missile Crisis, as he recently said. But despite this historical dimension of the war in Ukraine, Biden sees the challenge from China as clearly greater in the long term. This emerges from the new national security strategy that the White House presented on Wednesday after a delay of several months.
The president should have provided information in the spring about the challenges he sees in store for his country and how he would react to them. But Russia’s attack on Ukraine led to delays – and important lessons.
According to the White House, Russia poses an immediate threat to the world community. But: “In contrast, the People’s Republic of China is the only competitor that both intends to transform the international order and increasingly has the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to advance this goal.”
This is not a completely new finding, Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said at a media briefing on Wednesday. But the course of the war in Ukraine has clearly shown the limits of the overestimated Russian armed forces – and made it all the more clear for the White House that it can and should focus its attention on China.
“Crucial Decade”
As an old transatlantic, Biden is committed to close cooperation with Europe and expressly with NATO in his new security strategy. The White House emphasized the role of the European Union in a remarkably strong manner. Washington specifically urges Britain to work closely with the EU, a clearly different line than under Donald Trump, who was openly happy about Brexit.
Biden’s national security adviser said the world has entered a “decisive decade” on two fronts: first, the competition between the great powers over who gets to determine the future of the international order; secondly, despite this competition, it would be about fighting hunger, pathogens, terrorism and climate change in global cooperation.
In the new strategy, Biden expresses very clearly that this crucial decade is likely to be accompanied by trade wars. Among other things, he states that the United States wants to be the power that sets standards for the global economy. Investment and trade would be aligned so that the international order conformed to US values and interests. They would cultivate a network of allies with whom they wish to increase cooperation.
disinterest in the Middle East
For other measures, the security strategy remains vague. The United States must invest in the sources of American power, according to a White House fact sheet. It is obvious that the USA, for example, must improve the reliability of supply chains, for example with incentives for building chip factories. In addition, the paper mainly counts Biden’s political program to let the economy grow “from below and from the middle”. The White House referred to the Anti-Inflation Act.
New and completely different from Donald Trump, Joe Biden declares an almost demonstrative disinterest in the Middle East. “Over the past two decades, US foreign policy has focused primarily on threats from the Middle East and Africa,” the new security strategy says. Grandiose plans are now to be thrown overboard in favor of “more pragmatic steps that advance American interests.” The section talks about “stability, prosperity and opportunities for the people” – but not about democracy and human rights.
The paper expressly states that the United States would no longer use the military for regime change and the reconstruction of societies. It is the definitive end of the so-called nation building of the Americans after their wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Arab states and Israel should now continue their mutual rapprochement independently, the Americans want to be left in peace if possible. Biden defines two red lines for this: firstly, the US would not tolerate any threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab on the Red Sea, and secondly, no attempts by countries in the region to dominate others through rearmament, attacks or threats.