President lays out 2015 National Security Strategy

Last Friday, the White House released President Obama’s new National Security Strategy (NSS). The new NSS builds on the progress of the last six years, and provides a vision and strategy for advancing the nation’s interests.

The NSS sets out the principles and priorities that describe how the U.S. will lead the world toward greater peace and a new prosperity with purpose, strength, and partnerships, and affirms that the U.S. will lead by example while utilizing all instruments of national power.

The 2015 NSS builds on the national interests outlined in the 2010 NSS:

• The security of the United States, its citizens, and U.S. allies and partners;
• A strong, innovative, and growing U.S. economy in an open international economic system that promotes opportunity and prosperity;
• Respect for universal values at home and around the world; and
• A rules-based international order advanced by U.S. leadership that promotes peace, security, and opportunity through stronger cooperation to meet global challenges.

The new NSS outlines priorities based on a realistic assessment of the risks to U.S. national interests and the opportunities for advancing those interests. The NSS lists violent extremism, Russian aggression, cyberattacks, and climate change among the top threats to international security, and explores the growing roles of cybersecurity and development.

The NSS eschews orienting U.S. foreign policy around a single threat or region, and instead establishes a “diversified and balanced set of priorities appropriate for the world’s leading global power with interests in every part of an increasingly interconnected world.”

For more information about the 2015 National Security Strategy, please follow the links below.
National Security Strategy, The White House
Fact Sheet: The 2015 National Security Strategy, The White House
Obama lays out security strategy, cautions against ‘overreach’, Reuters