China was its biggest concern.. The Ukraine war forced the Biden administration to reshape its national security strategy

WASHINGTON

- The US President is required by law to send the National Security Strategy (NSS) document annually to Congress in order to communicate the Executive Branch's national security vision to the legislature, under Section 603 of the Defense Reorganization Act of 1986.

The document is supposed to be sent to Congress each year.

But successive US administrations decided to advance it once, with the arrival of a new US president to the White House.

Traditionally, the document is issued early weeks after the start of the new president's term in office, and in some cases it is delayed due to major events that obstruct or confuse the administration's view of global threats to the United States.

After President Joe Biden's rule began on January 20, 2021, his administration issued an interim national security strategy document in March of last year, and pledged to present the final strategy after a careful review of global conditions, to be issued in February 2022.

This was postponed indefinitely due to the global geostrategic changes caused by the Ukraine crisis, and its dimensions and repercussions are not yet clear.

Shortly after taking office, the Biden administration issued an interim document for the US National Security Strategy (Al-Jazeera)

Strengths and risks

The National Security Strategy document presents all aspects of American power and risks, as well as the resources needed to achieve the security objectives of the United States.

The document is obligated to include a discussion of the international interests, commitments, objectives and policies of the United States, as well as the necessary defense capabilities to deter threats and implement short and long-term security plans.

Nicholas Gvosdev, an expert on strategic affairs and a professor at the Military Naval Academy, says that "the Biden administration's new National Security Strategy is eagerly awaited, in which more detailed strategies will be formulated that will define challenges and priorities for the national security establishment. These strategies will provide more details about How the US military, in particular, will respond to these challenges.

Biden's vision for reforming a post-Trump world

In his first foreign policy address after his accession to office, which he gave on February 5, 2021, Joe Biden announced that America had returned after the world was tired of the chaos and style of former President Donald Trump.

Biden spoke of an ambitious agenda to reform Washington's alliances around the world, forge new ones, reduce corruption, halt democratic decline around the world, and tackle climate change.

In addition to managing the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, and escalating tensions with China.

After completing the file of the withdrawal from Afghanistan in mid-August, the US administration focused on the escalating threats from China, whether on the economic, technological or military side.

The World Trade Organization and the flag of Russia, America and China (Al Jazeera)

China first

Over the last two decades, US national security strategies have indicated an escalation of threats posed by China, and some lesser risks from Russia.

Unlike the Trump administration's 2017 National Security Strategy, which viewed both Russia and China on equal terms as threats, the Biden administration focused primarily on China in its interim guidance for 2021.

The "Interim National Security Strategy Guidance" document - issued by the Biden administration last March - referred to Russia only twice as a rival power that represents a challenge to the United States.

While the document mentioned China 15 times, all in the context of the need to prepare to confront its threats, as it has become the only competitor capable of combining economic, diplomatic, military and technological power, and challenging American capabilities.

During 2021, Biden reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a stable and predictable relationship that would allow Washington to focus on its priorities in countering China's threats in the Indo-Pacific region.

Biden has already begun steps to form a network of new alliances surrounding China, aimed at confronting its rising power, and the AUKUS alliance with Australia and Britain, and the Quad alliance with Japan, Australia and India, was established.

Hence, the Russian military attack on Ukraine caused a major predicament for American security strategy makers who were planning to confront the single strategy of the rise of China.

The "Ukraine War" is a strategic shock

Russia's attack on Ukraine is a historic turnaround for US national security strategists.

On the one hand, it is the first all-out war in Europe since 1945 in which a major military power is directly involved.

On the other hand, the repercussions of the Ukraine crisis are pushing China closer and closer to Russia.

With the Russian threat approaching the borders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), President Biden reiterated his pledge to defend "every inch of NATO territory in line with the text of Article 5 of the Alliance's document of common defense among its countries, and that any attack on a country is an attack on All members.

The Ukraine war has already prompted Washington to move more troops to Europe, and is likely to force it to rethink its defense spending levels and the size of its armed forces.

Some commentators see the era of nuclear cutbacks coming to an end, as many voices within the Pentagon argue for a nuclear arsenal large enough to deter both Russia's formidable nuclear weapons and China's rapidly growing nuclear forces, undeterred by any arms control agreement.

Hence, the Biden administration is busy rewriting its outline of the national security strategy in an environment unlike what it was prepared for months ago.

When the new strategy is released, it will have to reflect new realities. The Ukraine war has fundamentally changed the nature of European security in ways that remain unclear as the war continues.

With the uncertainty about the way to end the war, the future of the regime within Russia, and the efforts of European countries such as Germany to invest in their armaments and defense systems, the authors of the American national security strategy have many factors to take into account in their new calculations.