US: Trump's NatSec Strategy Formalises Pivot To Western Hemisphere

The Trump administration released its 33-page National Security Strategy, outlining security priorities that it claims will ‘correct’ strategies that have “fallen short” since the end of the Cold War. The NSS is a document that is typically released once every presidential term, shaping policy and budgets related to national security. 

• The document notes, “After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country. Yet the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests.” 
• Politico notes that the NSS “has some brutal words for Europe, suggesting it is in civilizational decline, and pays relatively little attention to the Middle East and Africa. It has an unusually heavy focus on the Western Hemisphere that it casts as largely about protecting the US homeland.”
• The document explicitly states that the strategy is a “corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, laid out in 1828 and broadly seen a formalising the Western Hemisphere with the US sphere of influence.
• Indeed, Politico notes, “the strategy spends an unusual amount of space on Latin America, the Caribbean and other U.S. neighbors. That’s a break with past administrations, who tended to prioritize other regions and other topics, such as taking on major powers like Russia and China or fighting terrorism.”