In the twilight of Empire

 

"I´m lonely, I feel so lonely..."

So I read the 33-page "National Security Strategy of the United States of America", published in November by the White House. Very little needs to be said about it, since it simply summarizes what the Trump administration is already doing (in all its contradictory glory). Well, apart from a few glaring omissions!

First, there is nothing about Greenland. Yet, one of Trump´s first actions as president-elect was to threaten Denmark (a NATO ally) with a military attack unless they hand over Greenland to the United States. Several other provocations against the territory has been launched since. The document does state that the United States consider the Western Hemisphere its exclusive sphere of influence, but it doesn´t specify whether or not Greenland is part of that theater and hence subject to the "Hemispheric domination" of the "Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine". Nor does it say anything about Canada, another nation threatened by the great leader which (obviously) forms part of the North American landmass...

Nor is there anything about Venezuela. At least not explicitly. It´s implied that very little can be done about the close ties between certain nations in the region and certain foreign actors. This could only be a reference to Cuba and Venezuela. Does this mean that the administration *doesn´t* want to invade them? Somehow, I find that hard to believe. But I suppose we´re soon about to find out. In the January corollary perhaps?

Otherwise, it´s mostly the same bungled geopolitics. The Indo-Pacific is heavily prioritized (no "isolationism" there), especially the confrontation with China. India is seen as a strategic ally. Is this the same India which effectively buried the Quad by continuing its good relations with Russia and attempting a thaw with China? Europe is attacked (this part of the document may have been written by a certain Vance) and a speedy peace in Ukraine called for. How a potential thaw with Russia will help confront China (their main backer) is never explained...as usual. 

The most morose statement in the entire document is surely this one: "Over the long term, it is more than plausible that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European. As such, it is an open question whether they will view their place in the world, or their alliance with the United States, in the same way as those who signed the NATO charter." Can anyone please tell the strategic genius who wrote this that the strongest military power in NATO (outside the United States) is *already non-European*? Yes, that would be Turkey, a predominantly Muslim (and mostly Turkish) nation. And one, I might add, with the same "transactional" attitude towards its NATO membership as the Trump administration itself...

Overall, the document kind of huffs and puffs, trying to give the impression of self-confidence and strength, while many of the concrete policy proposals rather speaks of weakness. Why the constant insistance that the European NATO allies must increase their domestic defense spending? Why the proposal that Japan and South Korea must shoulder more financial responsibility for defending Taiwan *in the geopolitical theater the Trump administration considers the most vital for US security interests*? Why so little about the jihadist-Islamist threat in Africa? And of course almost nothing about the impending depopulation crisis (despite constant attacks on mass immigration), the climate crisis (which is rather denied) and the future resource crises. Nah, we´re moving towards a new Golden Age (!), no less. 

We´re probably not even going to see a new Gilded Age. This is clearly a document heralding the twilight of the American Empire. And - somewhat ironically for a supposedly nationalist and isolationist-prone administration - it really can´t handle that transition either...