White House Releases President Biden's National Security Strategy

The White House has released President Biden's National Security Strategy, a key document which governs the foreign policy objectives of the administration.

• The NSS calls the upcoming decade "decisive" for global challenges.
• National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the strategy seeks to address two major challenges. First the “competition between major powers,” and the second, dealing with “transnational challenges” like climate change, food insecurity and infectious diseases.
• As expected, the strategy zeros in on China and Russia as key foreign policy challenges. NSS: "This strategy recognizes that the PRC presents America’s most consequential geopolitical challenge."
• It continues, "The PRC and Russia are increasingly aligned with each other but the challenges they pose are, in important ways, distinct. We will prioritize maintaining an enduring competitive edge over the PRC while constraining a still profoundly dangerous Russia."
• On Iran the strategy does not namecheck the JCPOA talks as a means of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
• NSS: "We will pursue diplomacy to ensure that Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon, while remaining postured and prepared to use other means should diplomacy fail."