December 19, 2017
Trump's National Security Strategy Is Dead on Arrival
If a national security strategy is developed by well-meaning, capable advisers, who have little control over an undisciplined and unpredictable president, is it worth the paper it is written on? No.
The Trump administration has just released its much anticipated “National Security Strategy,” a document that can often play a useful role in outlining a president’s vision for the thousands of government employees implementing policy, the American public and America’s allies and adversaries.
But this foreign policy strategy is dead on arrival; it is plain impossible to execute such a strategy with a commander in chief who is neither capable of sticking to his word nor a believer in some of the document’s most important principles.
To understand why it is pure fantasy to believe that the National Security Strategy will drive policy in the Trump administration, one need only look at the pattern of the past year. On one key international initiative after another we see the same story. The president tasks his team with developing an approach; they pursue a serious and rigorous process that takes into account a broad range of expertise from across the U.S. government; and then Trump interjects, undercutting the entire plan either because of politics, his obsession with tearing down what President Barack Obama built or what he most recently saw on Fox & Friends. This makes it impossible to develop any meaningful, coherent, long-term approach to any difficult problem. Let’s examine some examples.
Read the full op-ed in Newsweek.
More from CNAS
-
Donald Trump’s Gaza Plan Skips Step One
The White House proposal attempts to solve too many distinct issues all at once, without enough input from Palestinians....
By Delaney Soliday
-
Analyzing Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Israel and Gaza
President Trump and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are urging Hamas to accept the latest U.S. peace plan to end the war in Gaza. Trump says if Hamas rejects the 20...
By Rachel Brandenburg
-
Fourth Time’s a Charm? How Trump Could Push Netanyahu into Ending the Gaza War
Trump's new Gaza plan has a weak point: It clashes with Netanyahu's promises to his voters....
By Rachel Brandenburg
-
Israel’s Strike in Qatar: A “Big Red Line Has Been Crossed”
Donald Trump says he's "not thrilled" by Israel's unprecedented strike against Hamas in the Gulf state of Qatar – a key American ally. He adds it was the lone decision of Isra...
By Adham Sahloul