"The Trump administration's 2025 National Security Strategy has landed, with not so much a thud as a kind of greasy flutter. Most of the document consists of bombast, sycophancy, lies, inconsistencies, and grotesque self-contradictions. But it also-and this is something missed by the deservedly contemptuous reviews it has received-clarifies some policy preferences and touches on real problems. Like the babble of a thrashing sleeper who alternates between fantasy-laden dreams and cold-sweat nightmares, it is a window into disturbing encounters with the world's realities."
"Once upon a time, these documents were drafted by intellects such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski-both, notably, refugee immigrants. The reports they produced were reasoned, sometimes anodyne, but usually consistent, thoughtful, and historically informed. This NSS seems to have been put together by lickspittles with literary aspirations but no discernible literary skills. Only a disabled cringe reflex, for example, could have permitted the claims that Trump alone has rescued the United States from the machinations of American foreign-policy elites,"
The 2025 National Security Strategy combines grandiose rhetoric, falsehoods, and glaring contradictions with occasional practical policy signals and recognition of real problems. The document exaggerates achievements, asserts improbable diplomatic feats, and advances partisan triumphalism over careful analysis. The tone oscillates between fantasy and alarm, producing surreal metaphors and improbable self-praise. The strategy departs from earlier disciplined approaches and privileges performative claims. Despite its flaws, the text clarifies certain priorities and exposes tensions between professed respect for other cultures and efforts to coerce allies toward prescribed civilizational norms.
Read at The Atlantic
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]