The White House has released its first official National Security Strategy of Joe Biden’s presidency nearly two years in, replacing an interim version adopted in March 2021. Introducing the document on Wednesday, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan described the “decisive decade” to come embodying two “fundamental” challenges: competing to “shape the future of the international order” and addressing “transnational challenges” like terrorism, climate change, and pandemics.
The policy codifies the current strained relationship between the US, Russia and China in a way critics have argued sets the stage for a new Cold War, deeming “powers that layer authoritarian governance with a revisionist foreign policy” to be Washington’s “most pressing strategic challenge.” The US will “effectively compete” with China, which is described as “the only competitor with both the intent and, increasingly, the capability to reshape the international order,” but will limit its interactions with Russia to “constraining” the “dangerous” country.
The administration apparently saw no contradiction in following that statement up with a promise to “engage countries on their own terms” rather than merely “view[ing] the world solely through a competitive lens” – though the document explains such a privilege will be available only to those countries “willing to constructively address shared challenges within the rules-based international order.”