Ulrike FrankeA few thoughts on the new US national security strategy that was released today.
🧵
www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/u...
The headline, the main takeaway from a European viewpoint is this:
The transatlantic relationship as we know it is over. Yes, we kinda knew this. But this is now official US White House policy. Not a sppech, not a statement. The West as it used to be no longer exists.
I’ll go through it in order, but what all Europeans need to read are pages 25-27 on “Promoting European Greatness”.
But first:
This is really a strategy which prioritises. They also say so openly, and definitely have a point on this 👇
I’m also gonna say something that will be controversial here: This is actually a very accessible and easy to read document. Is it good prose? No, but it also doesn’t do jargon. It might be written by AI, as some have suggested, but for a normal person, this is much clearer than past strategies.
Just compare the table of content from the 2025 to the 2022 NSS.
Prioritisation and easy language.
Honestly, our strategies could use more of that.
(This is a point about form, not content.)
Let’s look at those priorities:
. “the affairs of other countries are our concern only if their activities directly threaten our interests”
. Focus on Western Hemisphere
. nations should prioritize their interests
. “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over”
What about Europe? It is mentioned quite a bit, with one primary focus: European identity and the alleged elites and minority governments that restrict core liberties and democratic processes. This is extremely close to JD Vance’s Munich speech.
What struck me most on Europe wasn’t the focus on value, freedom of speech etc - again, very similar to Vance’s Munich speech - but how activist it is. This is about directly trying to influence what is going on in Europe:
Bart Janssens 🇧🇪@rikefranke.bsky.social Wow, it's unbelievable that this is in an official strategy text!
Koen 🇺🇦@rikefranke.bsky.social neonazi's in US promoting strongly neonazi's in EU - aligned with Putin/Russia's strategy to weaken the EU (Brexit, support extremes, sabotage actions, hybrid warfare ...) and the US and Trump and the GOP is just helping Russia (and it's master China) to weaken the west : EU and US - And the Trump family takes in the billions of $ and 40% of US people still strongly support this ...
There is one striking incoherence in the text: the document is all about America first.
But the very same document lists America’s “network of alliances” & “unmatched softpower” as assets, and speaks about “collective defence”.
If the US does what it describes in the doc, it will lose all that.
The doc is all about closing the US, yet it says that “openness” is what differentiates it internationally.
It wants to rebalance markets, criticises globalisation, yet says that “free market capitalism” will “continue to make us the global partner of first choice.”
Just realised I made exactly this point not too long ago in a Collimateur debate: if the US wants to become more like other countries, it will lose some of the exceptional advantages that come from being exceptional. I don’t think the people in power are really taking that into consideration. 👇
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pg56xsulmt33b64lr7ocsqd6/post/3m3prnray722a
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:pg56xsulmt33b64lr7ocsqd6/post/3m3prnray722a
And if you are so inclined, you can compare and contrast to the last NSS from 2022. Different times.
bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/u...
bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/upl...
bidenwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/upl...
Actually, the strategy you want to compare this one to is the 2017 Trump I strategy. A different world.
trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/u...
Did a thread on the NSS 2017 and how different it is to this year’s here
bsky.app/profile/rike...
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:eycg47nc4kycvzgiq3r5h326/post/3m7etdae7522v
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:eycg47nc4kycvzgiq3r5h326/post/3m7etdae7522v
Final addendum: Wrote down my take in a more organised way here:
bsky.app/profile/rike...
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:eycg47nc4kycvzgiq3r5h326/post/3m7njbutbt227
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:eycg47nc4kycvzgiq3r5h326/post/3m7njbutbt227
The Polish Dispatch@rikefranke.bsky.social The entire text is a bunch of contradictions. It almost sounds histerical in its tone. There's also a tin foil hat smell emanating from it.
maybenothas anybody checked whether this too was originally drafted in russian?
Chris KendallAny country or actor that says “our policy for Europe should prioritise cultivating resistance to Europe's current trajectory within European nations” is the EU’s enemy. We can ignore it, we can deny it, we can refuse to acknowledge it, but it is.
Oliver D. Reithmaier@rikefranke.bsky.social seems quite contradictory to the "America First"/isolationist trend that has been the theme of the admin so far.