The U.S. National Security Strategy is a periodical governmental publication outlining the American foreign and security policy priorities. Its latest edition was published on Friday - and for a number of reasons it stirred controversy across Europe, Poland included. The 33-page document defines Donald Trump's vision for the world - and how he will wield US military and economic power to work towards it.
Quoting a Radio France International comment - in the new National Security Strategy "the US president launched an all-out attack, lambasting Europe as an over-regulated, censorious continent lacking in 'self-confidence' and facing 'civilizational erasure' due to immigration". European politicians have begun to react already, with Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul saying his country did not need "outside advice" - BBC informed.
The new American Strategy emphasizes that U.S. policy toward Europe should prioritize, among other things, returning to strategic stability in relations with Russia, enabling Europe to assume responsibility for its own defense, and preventing further NATO enlargement. Neither of these statements sounds reassuring from the European point of view, especially in the case of countries bordering Russia and Belarus.
Polityka Insight is one of Poland's leading independent analytical centres. Its Head of Security and International Affairs Department, Marek Świerczyński, told Poland's national press agency PAP that the new US National Security Strategy "confirms very many things that we have heard from the Donald Trump administration in recent months".
As the expert added - the document can also be interpreted as the US "support for anti-integration tendencies within the EU", for the "so-called European political populism, which manifests itself most strongly in countries like Hungary". Similar notions were recently laid out by Poland's President Karol Nawrocki as well, during his speech in Prague - although experts point out that such an approach is nothing but playing to Moscow's tune. It is one of many things Poland's President and government disagree on, with the latter remaining dedicated to strengthening the ties with both Brussels and the rest of Europe.
Also on Friday the analysts of Poland's National Security Bureau (BBN) published a concise memo on the new US Strategy. It pointed out that the American document heralds a "fundamental overhaul of the United States' approach to the world" - and a redefinition of the US national interest, "focusing on great-power competition - primarily with China".
According to the BBN analysts, the Strategy has far-reaching consequences for Europe and Poland - it increases the strategic importance of the part of Europe in which Poland is located, which "opens up new opportunities but also forces greater defense independence".
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Source: IAR, PAP