The Battle to Resource the U.S. National Defense Strategy
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By Erin Hurley
March 26, 2019
In a recent article, (What the pessimists get wrong about Trump in Asia) Natasha Kassam argued that Donald Trump’s election has not ended Barack Obama’s pivot to the Pacific or led to a significant break with traditional approaches to U.S. foreign policy in Asia. Kassam rightly pointed to the 2017 National Defense Strategy (NDS) as a reflection of the “furious agreement†among the American national security establishment that China represents a strategic threat that must be countered through deep engagement in the region.
While the need for a strategic rebalancing has been under discussion for many years, the NDS still provides the clearest articulation of U.S. objectives to date. Current negotiations over the Fiscal Year 2020 (FY20) defence budget represent a key opportunity for progress. However, the effort required to adequately resource the strategy cannot be underestimated, and Trump’s deployment of troops to the U.S. southern border and plan to take unobligated funds from the defence budget to build barriers introduces a whole new level of chaos to the process.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2019/03/26/the_battle_to_resource_the_us_national_defense_strategy_114286.html?utm_source=RC%20Defense%20Morning%20Recon&utm_campaign=5355e847b7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_03_26_09_22&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_694f73a8dc-5355e847b7-81835773
