US National Security Strategy 2022

I t is not surprising that the US National Security Strategy (NSS) is primarily based on meeting its vital national security interest when it comes to its core pillars of grand strategy such as strengthening its security and economic associations with its key allies and partners in Asia, Middle East and Europe; modernising its conventional and nuclear forces termed by the US as an “integrated deterrence”, outcompeting China and constraining Russia; playing out offshore balancing in the broader Asia-Pacific region; and retaining a fair amount of balance between the traditional and nontraditional security paradigms.

President Joe Biden expresses in the 2022 NSS that “the world is at an inflection point. My Administration will seize this decisive decade to advance America’s vital interests, position the United States to outmaneuver our geopolitical competitors, and tackle shared challenges.” He evaluates the significance of QUAD, AUKUS and NATO both in Europe and Asia-Pacific, largely perceived as Indo-Pacific in the NSS. On outcompeting China, the US desires to retain its predominance in the broader Asia-Pacific region to compete and contain China’s rise as a regional power while protecting its allies and partners. Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the Sino-US ties remain strained over Taiwan despite the US acknowledgement of ‘One-China Policy’ and ‘strategic ambiguity’ on the US protection of Taiwan.

On the one hand, the US remains committed to protecting Taiwan from China’s direct military invasion thereby retaining its predominance in the region. On the other hand, China asserts that Taiwan is its integral part. With the Chinese logic of ‘strategic patience’, China foresees Taiwan integrated with mainland China by 2049 thereby proclaiming this venture as one of the significant parts of the ‘Asian Century’. When it comes to the perceived US grand strategy of offshore balancing, the NSS document clearly reflects the support for QUAD and AUKUS while defining the US strategy for outcompeting China. The NSS argues that “Our AUKUS security partnership with Australia and the United Kingdom promotes stability in the Indo-Pacific while deepening defense and technology integration.”

On QUAD, the NSS elaborates that it would address the ‘regional issues’. The introduction of AUKUS and the revitalisation of QUAD in the perceived Indo-Pacific region clearly signal the US outcompeting strategy vis-à-vis China both in the field of emerging technology and geo-political imperatives. This in turn reflects that despite economic cooperation and interdependence between China and the US and its allies, the strategies and counter-strategies for competition and containment are played out in the broader Asia-Pacific region which are gradually affecting the policies and strategies of others in the similar region.

Also, besides the regional rise of China in the Asia-Pacific, the US perceives a threat from the resurgence of Russia in Europe. In this context, the NSS emphasises on the military and nuclear force modernisation: “By the 2030s, the United States for the first time will need to deter two major nuclear powers. To ensure our nuclear deterrent remains responsive to the threats we face, we are modernizing the nuclear Triad, nuclear command, control, and communications, and our nuclear weapons infrastructure, as well as strengthening our extended deterrence commitments to our Allies.”

To sum up, the US would desire to take the lead in technological innovation, speed, military force modernisation, integrated nuclear deterrence, support its allies and partners both in Europe by constraining Russia and in Asia by outcompeting and containing China, retain its power projection and predominance in the Asia-Pacific region. Although not mentioned in the 2022 NSS policy document, Pakistan cannot simply be ignored for its geoeconomic potential and geopolitical value. It is to be seen how and when Pakistan plays such imperatives to the best of its vital security interest.