Dec 9, 2025
Normally, I would open this article with the snarky comment that I read the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) that was issued late last week by the Trump administration so you wouldn’t have to. This time, however, I encourage readers to go through it themselves; it’s just 33 pages and won’t take much time. It’s written in language that most folks will understand, devoid of the jargon and lofty rhetoric that tends to color those documents and render them alien to nonspecialists.
When you do, it will feel familiar. There is nothing in it that will surprise anyone who has paid the slightest attention to U.S. foreign policy since Donald Trump returned to the White House. It…
Dec 9, 2025
Normally, I would open this article with the snarky comment that I read the U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) that was issued late last week by the Trump administration so you wouldn’t have to. This time, however, I encourage readers to go through it themselves; it’s just 33 pages and won’t take much time. It’s written in language that most folks will understand, devoid of the jargon and lofty rhetoric that tends to color those documents and render them alien to nonspecialists.
When you do, it will feel familiar. There is nothing in it that will surprise anyone who has paid the slightest attention to U.S. foreign policy since Donald Trump returned to the White House. It may also feel like something the ordinary consumer of news and events could have written. It is a plainspoken expression of U.S. policy. It feels like it was written by a high school senior with solid, but not outstanding, grades in AP (advanced placement) world history.
As the Washington Post editorialized, the NSS is “overflowing with sweeping aspirations and generalizations but short on details.” It’s best to leave things vague and general to allow the inevitable improvisation that occurs when key decisions reflect instincts rather than a deliberative process.