The Obama administration’s National Security Strategy released in February 2015 outlines how the US military and policy planners have anticipated America’s role in the world over the president’s final two years in office.
Though widely reported in corporate media, the largely aggressive thrust of the text has been overlooked in most mainstream coverage. The text emphasizes, for example, that the US must continue to remain the world’s preeminent superpower, an ominous assertion particularly in light of the recent standoff with Russia concerning Syria and Ukraine.
The National Security Strategy lists eight “strategic risks” as triggers for potential US military intervention, four of which are by now traditional in nature, such as the threat of attack by a foreign or terrorist power. The remaining four, however, “global economic crisis or widespread economic slowdowns,” “severe global infectious disease outbreaks,” “climate change,” and “major energy market disruptions,” have nothing to do with military provocation yet are provided as pretexts for military action.
The policy similarly views the whole world (rather than simply the Middle East) as prospective theaters for US-led imperialism. “This strategy eschews orienting our entire foreign policy around a single threat or region,” the document reads. “It establishes instead a diversified and balanced set of priorities appropriate for the world’s leading global power with intention in every part of an increasingly interconnected world.”
Source: Patrick Martin, “National Security Strategy Document Affirms US Drive for World Domination,” World Socialist Web Site, International Committee of the Fourth International, February 7, 2015. http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/02/07/nssd-f07.html.
Student Researcher: Zakaria Sadik (Florida Atlantic University)
Faculty Evaluator: James F. Tracy (Florida Atlantic University)