I really liked the new U.S. National Security Strategy. It’s a perfect textbook.
The key word in it is unapologetic bluntness.
I’m sure this document must have caused fits of envy in Moscow, in the spirit of: “We should have been the ones to write this!”
Because it fully reflects the Kremlin’s way of thinking—something the USSR could publicly declare, but its epigones led by Putin cannot. Everything that has long been stereotypically attributed to Americans is written there in black and white, with Donald Trump’s ornate signature. What’s written with a pen can’t be chopped out with an axe.
In this sense, the document is wonderful, because for a while it clears the international‑legal continuum of accumulated varnish and plainly shows what (has always been!) hidden under layers of diplomacy and etiquette.
The Americans write openly:
1. Everything in the Western Hemisphere is ours.
Because we decided so and can impose our position by force.
The only possible discussion is about how to use the benefits of the Western Hemisphere for the good of the United States.
2. The main instrument of world politics is managing growth.
The U.S. will harm (!!!) anyone who grows dangerously against America’s interests or outside the boundaries it sets. Pretty cool, right?
Washington intends to stimulate growth in the Western Hemisphere, but will preemptively remove all outsiders so that no one can benefit from it without America’s permission.
The U.S. will stick its foot into the fastest‑growing region—Indo‑Pacific + India.
The Middle East is no longer what it used to be.
Africa is being offered relations without liberalism and without obligations.
3. The EU is a set of donor organs for the U.S.
As an integrated entity, it is harmful, since it controls comparable economic power, technology, and culture.
The EU must be downgraded to a collection of states that individually seek their fortune in relations with the U.S.
To achieve its goals in Europe, the U.S. will openly interfere in the domestic politics of European states by supporting forces that promote the American agenda.
At the same time, the strategy states: attempts to carry out similar actions inside America will be tightly monitored and harshly punished (this relates to my favorite topics—lobbying and dual loyalty).
4. Access to the U.S. market, favorable tariffs, and the ability to buy American weapons—this is the partnership formula for friendly states.
The U.S. is a quiet but dynamic harbor.
The Western Hemisphere under U.S. control is a zone of security and growth.
Everything else is an arena of struggle, including armed struggle (why else repeat 20 times the point about selling weapons?).
Therefore, keep your money in dollars and in an American bank.
Because everything that has grown uncontrollably (the euro, China’s digital platforms…) will be brought into order…
First, it’s beautiful (c).
The main question is how long this approach will survive within political cycles.
Second, it pushes us to reflect on Ukraine’s strategies.
Our current cycle of producing strategic documents is disgraceful and (with very rare exceptions) has no practical value in real conditions.
By the time implementation begins, the situation has changed so much that basic strategic assumptions must be rewritten.
Very few strategies survive long enough to be implemented at all. They have degenerated into a special type of collective fiction.
The time from “strategy‑making” to “execution” must be radically shortened and filled with action.
We must ban the practice of writing strategies for every occasion and in every sphere.
It’s parasitic chatter that creates conflicts between documents, terminology confusion, furious attempts to clarify terms, endless reorganizations, etc.
The Americans hint at the key word—priorities.
There should be few of them; they should serve as the integral criterion of assessment.
Everything important but outside the priority list should be honestly moved to the background—ideally without irreversible negative consequences, with intervention only when necessary and on a residual basis.
War, in a sense, gives a unique chance to cleanse the state organism, legal field, and public consciousness of all kinds of sludge.
We must take advantage of it.
