Jim Garamone at the DoD News
offers the below piece:
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3, 2017 —
During a speech to the Reagan National Defense Forum yesterday, President
Donald J. Trump’s national security advisor gave hints on what the president’s
national security strategy will contain.
Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster,
the first active-duty national security advisor since Army Gen. Colin Powell,
said the strategy would set the stage for the country to reclaim its strategic
confidence.
Making the speech at the
Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, was a tribute to the
president who resurrected U.S. confidence when he took office in 1981. The
1970s were not a high point in American history. One president forced to
resign, the loss in Vietnam, the Arab oil embargo and Iran breaking into the
American embassy in Tehran and holding 55 American citizens hostage set the
stage for Reagan’s presidency.
Confidence in the United
States and the nation’s influence abroad were at a low point, McMaster said.
“The Soviet Union appeared to be on the rise and America, it seemed, was in
decline,” he said.
“President Reagan ushered in a dramatic rethinking of
America’s role in the world and a dramatic renewal of American confidence.
America would not only triumph in the Cold War and beyond but reach a new
height of influence and prosperity.”
It was also fitting to
discuss the Trump administration’s national security strategy, which will be
released shortly, since Reagan signed the first national security strategy in
1987, the general said.
Crossroads
“Today as we approach the
unveiling of the Trump administration’s national security strategy, we are at a
similar crossroads,” McMaster said.
Russia and China are
subverting the post-World War II political, economic and security orders to
advance their own interests at the expense of the United States and its allies,
the national security advisor said.
Iran and North Korea are
violating the sovereignty of their neighbors, pursuing weapons of mass
destruction and exporting terror to other nations. “Jihadist terror
organizations such as [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] threaten all
civilized people in every corner of the world,” he said.
“These national security
challenges also require a dramatic rethinking of American foreign policy from
previous decades,” McMaster said.
The national security
strategy “will focus on protecting our homeland, advancing American prosperity,
preserving peace through strength … and finally enhancing American influence,”
he said.
McMaster said the
administration is reclaiming the strategic confidence necessary for
implementing the strategy through understanding in four areas. “First, the
values that define our nation; second, the full instruments that define our
power; third, the threats facing our nation; and fourth, the dynamic and
competitive nature of our security environment,” he said.
Instruments of Power
The values that define
America are important. President Reagan called America “a shining city upon a
hill” and spoke of the suffering of people living under fear and oppression.
Americans believe in the value of every human life, McMaster said, and the world
should know that is the case.
Trump’s actions have
reinforced this, the general said. He ordered attacks on the Syrian airfield
from which aircraft laden with chemical weapons launched attacks on their own
people. “The president further demonstrated his commitments to American values
with changes in the policies toward Cuba, Iran and Venuzuela,” he said.
Using all instruments of
national power is at the heart of the strategy. “President Reagan understood
that diplomacy and military force were both important and equally vital tools
for national power,” McMaster said. “President Trump is aligning diplomatic,
economic, military, informational, intelligence and law enforcement efforts
since the first days.”
The South Asia strategy is a
good example of this, he said. “We would no longer confuse activity with
progress,” the general said. “Our military efforts and operations in the region
combined with the efforts of our partners would focus on what brought us to
Afghanistan in 2001 -- to deny terrorists safe havens that they could use to
threaten America and threaten our allies.”
The administration is also
clear about the threats facing America, McMaster said. These threats, he said,
“emanate from revisionist powers, rogue regimes and jihadist terrorist organizations.”
The approach adopts a
realistic view of our security environment, the general said. “For this reason,
we do not base national security decisions on rigid ideology, but instead on
our core national interests and clearly defined objectives derived from those
interests,” McMaster said.
Finally, the approach seeks
to understand the dynamic and competitive nature of the security environment.
“We must acknowledge that the international system is, above all, characterized
by competition, interaction and change,” he said.
The United States wants all
nations to develop and compete, “but the competition must be fair,” McMaster
said. “Our economic relationships will respect our partners sovereignty and
their economic destinies, while ensuring American workers and American
companies are not unfairly disadvantaged.”
Note: The above White House
photo was taken by Shealah Craighead on July 18, 2017. From left, Vice
President Mike Pence, President Donald J. Trump, and National Security Advisor
Army Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster talk with service members during a lunch in the
Roosevelt Room at the White House.
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