Two American experts demand that it direct its foreign policy towards competition

America is able to confront Russia and China through strategic clarity

  • America needs to develop its offensive weapons.

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  • The Chinese leadership has revealed its vision to emerge on the world stage through many intertwined strategies.

    AFP

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The United States faces strong competition from China and Russia, to an extent that has become very clear, with the moves of Beijing and Moscow to expand their influence on the global level, and pose real challenges to American hegemony.

The former acting director of operations at the CIA, expert Jack Devin, author of “China’s Vision of Victory” and founder of the “Atlas” organization, Dr. Jonathan Ward, said in a report published by the American magazine “National Interest” that successive US administrations have begun the huge task. Which is to shift US foreign policy again towards the competition of the major powers, specifically China and Russia.

President Joe Biden has framed the competition as being part of a larger competition between democracies and authoritarian regimes.

This week's Democracy Summit, with more than 100 countries participating, may be the most important framing of the competition yet on the global stage, however, says Devin and Ward: "The United States still falls short when it comes to the strategic clarity of our rivals in the competition. which they unleashed years ago to dismantle the US-led regime.”

Unique vision

Despite the differences between China and Russia, they have a unique vision of their strategic interests and greater ambitions in the international system, and until relatively recently the United States was primarily focused on counter-terrorism, which gave Russia and China the opportunity to act enthusiastically against American national interests. The lack of strategic focus is detrimental to us.”

The Chinese Communist Party has revealed its vision to emerge on the world stage, and through many intertwined strategies, from military modernization to the Belt and Road Initiative, and industrial policies that seek to dominate emerging technologies and strategic industries in the 21st century, China's leadership seeks to position itself at the center of the economy. Globalization and building a military power capable of outsmarting any country, including the United States, and from Southeast Asia to Australia, the Chinese Communist Party has turned economic engagement into an instrument of coercion and influence, in an effort to make the world more malleable to its goals.

China's dangerous activities include its ongoing expansion from Hong Kong to the Himalayas, human rights atrocities taking place in Xinjiang, to its drive to root 5G in the infrastructure of countries from Europe to Latin America.

The challenge is not over

According to Devin and Ward, China's actions demonstrate that the challenge of its expansion did not end with the end of the Cold War.

At the same time, Russia is seeking to restore its role as a global player, and its military incursions into Ukraine, Georgia and Syria have strategically chosen to advance its regional position forward, and increase its access to warm water ports without invoking a serious international reaction, and its pursuit of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline aims to entrench European dependence on Russian energy, allowing Moscow a seat at the table for almost any talks in Brussels. Moreover, its president, Vladimir Putin, has integrated Russian foreign policy into his own efforts to restore the dignity that Russia lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union Intelligence Background Putin looks to his own intelligence agencies as the main mechanism for achieving his foreign policy goals, and he is first and foremost undermining the West and its democratic values.

In light of the challenges posed by these two great rivals, the United States now constantly faces strategic competition in almost every arena of international security and foreign policy, while at the same time trying to protect itself from the constant onslaught of intelligence attacks and artificial espionage from Russia and China respectively. This predicament puts the United States on the de facto defensive, as Washington seeks to counter the economic and military rise of China, while also trying to fend off an endless Russian offensive of disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks. The United States should better define its offensive stance and clearly define its long-term strategic goals, as Russia and China have done.Part of this clarity will come from unabashedly linking US economic power to US values ​​of freedom, rights, and democracy, and the US must define a strategy to maintain economic supremacy before China can rise to supremacy.

To prevent the geopolitical encroachment of China and Russia, and the miserable outcome of a world in which adversary regimes have a truly global reach, the United States and its allies must inculcate a modern containment strategy toward its authoritarian rivals, it is time for Washington to be as clear about its strategic position as Beijing or Moscow.

• Until relatively recently, the United States was primarily focused on combating terrorism, which gave Russia and China the opportunity to act enthusiastically against American national interests.

• The United States is now constantly facing strategic competition in almost every arena of international security and foreign policy, and at the same time, the United States is trying to protect itself from ongoing intelligence attacks and artificial espionage from Russia and China, respectively.

• Despite the differences between China and Russia, they have a unique vision of their strategic interests, and greater ambitions in the international system.

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