National Defense Strategy Downplays Democracy
Proceedings Magazine - February 2018 Vol.
By Captain William Bray, U.S. Navy
(Retired)
The new National Defense Strategy (NDS) correctly focuses on U.S. strategic competitors China and Russia. The strategy is excellent in many other ways, as well. One weakness, however, is that it downplays the importance of promoting and supporting democracy more broadly around the world. As the NDS is written, democracy is something the United States stands for but does not “impose†on anyone. This type of language signals that democracy is a cultural rather than a universal phenomenon, something that works for some peoples but not others.
https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2018-02/national-defense-strategy-downplays-democracy
