THE TRUMP DOCTRINE: The National Security Strategy is one of those reports required by Congress. In the past the document, which is a broad outline of the guiding principles behind America’s foreign policy and use of military force, is reviewed by the president and sent up Capitol Hill without much fanfare. But President Trump, when briefed on how his national security staff has translated his America First principle into a formal doctrine, was anxious to introduce it himself to the American people. “It illustrates how invested in this he is, and how well he thinks it accurately reflects his priorities,” a senior administration official told reporters yesterday. “As far as we can determine, no administration has finished it in its first year, and no president has ever rolled this out with a speech before.” The president is scheduled to give that speech at 2 p.m. at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
WHAT IT DOES: “It’s hard to implement a national security strategy unless you have a clear and actional playbook that has the consensus of the team,” said one of three senior administration officials who briefed reporters. The Trump strategy has four pillars:
Protect the homeland: Includes strengthening borders and countering threats from terrorists and missiles, such as those from North Korea.
Advance American prosperity: The strategy put more emphasis on seeing both allies and adversaries as economic competitors, seeks to protect the U.S. advantage in innovation and technology, and includes trade deals as a crucial element of national security.
Preserve peace through strength: This pillar basically encapsulates Trump’s promise to rebuild the U.S. military, including cyber, space and nuclear forces.
Advance American influence: The goal is to phase out subsidies to other countries and instead foster investment to create successful societies that become future trading partners. The doctrine does not specifically include spreading democracy as a core mission, but does seek to advance American values. “America, we believe has been a force for good in the world throughout its history,” one senior official said. “While we don’t seek to impose our way of life on anyone, we believe that a free market, a private sector that’s thriving, political stability, the rule of law, human rights, and peace is an advantage for every nation.”
WHAT IT DOESN’T DO: Administration officials said the new strategy is more of a description of the strategy already employed in the first year of the Trump administration, rather than a prescription for what’s to come. “This strategy is already operationalized. It’s not like we drafted the document and now we’re going to get started,” one official said. And the official said it wasn’t drafted in response to any previous administration. “It’s an encapsulation of the president’s strategy as articulated in his speeches.” That said, there are some differences not just with the Obama administration, but with all prior administrations, the official said. “There is an unprecedented focus on homeland security and the border … and the economic piece gets much more attention, the idea that economic security is national security.” The document, however, no longer lists climate change as a national security threat (despite the fact that the National Defense Authorization Act, which Trump signed last week, called climate change a “direct threat” to national security.)
WHAT’S NEXT: The NSS is a broad overarching mission statement that is long on principle and short on details. Some of those details will include a series of follow-up documents beginning with the National Defense Strategy to be unveiled by the Pentagon as soon as next month, along with the Nuclear Posture Review, the Ballistic Missile review, and the National Bio-Defense Review.
Good Monday morning and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre), National Security Writer Travis J. Tritten (@travis_tritten) and Senior Editor David Brown (@dave_brown24). Email us here for tips, suggestions, calendar items and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email and we’ll add you to our list. And be sure to follow us on Twitter @dailyondefense.
HAPPENING TODAY, WEST NOMINATION: The Senate is set this afternoon to vote on the nomination of Owen West, who Trump picked in June to be assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low intensity conflict. West was a trader with Goldman Sachs and previously served in the Marine Corps as an infantry platoon commander, reconnaissance platoon leader and a combat adviser. His nomination was reported by Senate Armed Services in July.
McCAIN HEADS HOME: Senate Armed Service Chairman John McCain is out of the hospital and will spend the holidays at home in Arizona, according to his office, which released a statement from his doctor. “Senator McCain has responded well to treatment he received at Walter Reed Medical Center for a viral infection and continues to improve,” said Dr. Mark Gilbert, chief of neuro-oncology at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute. “An evaluation of his underlying cancer shows he is responding positively to ongoing treatment.”
McCain will undergo physical therapy and rehabilitation at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, and “looks forward to returning to Washington in January,” according to his office.
LAWMAKERS WORRIED ABOUT A-10 FUNDING: Twenty lawmakers are calling for funding to keep the Air Force’s A-10 close-air support aircraft flying to be included in any budget deal for fiscal 2018. The fleet has been used to attack Islamic State fighters, but about one-third of the 1970s-era aircraft, also known as Warthogs, are in need of wing replacements. The maintenance work on 110 of the A-10s was included in the National Defense Authorization Act signed last week by Trump. But Congress has yet to reach an agreement to fund the annual defense bill and the Senate’s defense appropriations plan for fiscal 2018 so far does not include the money for new wings. “We ask that this same level of funding [as the NDAA] be secured in any final FY18 spending package in order to prevent a critical capability gap in the operational fleet,” Rep. Martha McSally, a former A-10 pilot, along with 18 House members and a senator wrote in a letter to leaders on the House and Senate appropriations committees.
VLAD CALLS DON: Three days after Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin to thank him for his public praise of Trump’s handling of the U.S. economy, Putin called Trump to thank him for passing along intelligence that thwarted a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg, the White House confirmed yesterday.
“Based on the information the United States provided, Russian authorities were able to capture the terrorists just prior to an attack that could have killed large numbers of people. No Russian lives were lost and the terrorist attackers were caught and are now incarcerated,” a White House statement said. “President Trump appreciated the call and told President Putin that he and the entire United States intelligence community were pleased to have helped save so many lives.”
RUSSIA, U.S. TRADE ACCUSATIONS IN SYRIA: Over the weekend, Russia accused the U.S. of supporting terrorists in Syria, just days after Washington accused Moscow of the same thing. “Despite the U.S. statements on unequivocal commitment to fighting against the ISIS terrorist organization, international coalition continues cooperation with the remaining terrorists in Syria,” said a post on the Russian Ministry of Defense Facebook page.
The U.S. last week accused Russia and the Syrian regime of allowing Islamic State fighters to move freely through an area that they control. And while Russia declared the war against ISIS was won in Syria, the U.S. says there are still almost 2,000 ISIS fighters left. “Don’t believe it when somebody says that ISIS is completely down,” Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Friday. “We’re continuing to fight them, they’re on the run, they can’t hold against our alliance at all.”
In one of his impromptu off-camera engagements with reporters at the Pentagon, Mattis was at a loss to explain why Russian fighter jets keep straying into airspace over Syria patrolled by the U.S. under a joint agreement. “I mean, when you’re turning a supersonic aircraft in tight space, you can float over it slightly and come back in,” Mattis said, but the recent incident in which two Russian Su-25s were ushered away by U.S. F-22s carried the risk of a dangerous miscalculation.
“I don’t expect perfection, but I don’t expect dangerous maneuvers, either. And so we’ll sort this out. But right now, I cannot tell you if it’s sloppy airmanship, or a rambunctious pilot, or people who are trying to do something that was very unwise.”
MATTIS ON TRUMP’S RUSSIA INTEL: Mattis also said Trump has never objected to discussions about Russian threats, despite a report last week that administration officials downplay such intelligence to avoid angering the president.
“I have no reservations nor has the president ever evidenced any pushback when I bring up Russia in a national security context, and obviously this has come up,” Mattis said. Intelligence on Russia is sometimes included only in the written section of his daily briefings or the CIA briefer attempts to present it in a way that softens the impact, the Washington Post reported in a story that had 50 current and former U.S. officials as sources.
GLOBAL DEFENSE SPENDING PROJECTED AT $1.67 TRILLION: Jane’s Defence is out this morning with its annual IHS Markit report predicting that worldwide defense spending will top $1.6 trillion next year, a post-Cold War record. The report forecasts defense spending will grow for the fifth consecutive year, reaching $1.67 trillion in 2018 and overtaking the previous post-Cold War record of $1.63 trillion seen in 2010.
“Defence spending will increase by 3.3 percent in 2018 – the fastest rate of growth for a decade – driven by the largest year-on-year increase in US spending since 2008,” the report said. “Funding for the procurement of military equipment is also expected to rise from $295 billion in 2017 to $315 billion in 2018, another record high in global terms.”
UFO SPENDING REVEALED: The Pentagon has spent millions of dollars over the years to investigate unidentified objects witnessed moving through the air, as instructed by Congress, according to nearly simultaneous reports on Saturday by the New York Times and Politico. The Pentagon set up the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program program in 2007 to look into reports and claims related to unidentified flying objects, and that it was initiated by retired Sen. Harry Reid.
The program remains largely classified, but Reid acknowledged its existence in an interview. “I’m not embarrassed or ashamed or sorry I got this thing going,” he told the Times. “I think it’s one of the good things I did in my congressional service. I’ve done something that no one has done before.” A former congressional staffer told Politico that one theory behind the incidents is that foreign adversaries could be at work. “Was this China or Russia trying to do something or has some propulsion system we are not familiar with?” the former staffer said.
In response to an inquiry from the Washington Examiner, the Pentagon provided the following statement: “The Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program ended in the 2012 timeframe. It was determined that there were other, higher priority issues that merited funding and it was in the best interest of the DoD to make a change. The DoD takes seriously all threats and potential threats to our people, our assets, and our mission and takes action whenever credible information is developed.”
You can see a declassified video of a pair of Navy pilots chasing a UFO here.
SOLDIER IN NIGER AMBUSH WASN’T CAPTURED: An American soldier killed in an ambush in Niger with three comrades but recovered days later wasn’t captured alive by the enemy or executed at close range, the Associated Press has learned, based on the conclusion of a military investigation. It found evidence he apparently fought to the end.
Dispelling a swirl of rumors about how Sgt. La David Johnson died, the report has determined that he was killed by enemy rifle and machine gun fire as he was attacked by an offshoot of the Islamic State group about 120 miles north of Niamey, the capital of the African country. The attack took place Oct. 4; Johnson’s body was recovered two days later.
U.S. officials familiar with the findings spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to describe details of an investigation that has not been finalized or publicly released.
CHINA REJECTS U.S. THREATS ON KOREA: An American attack on North Korea is “unacceptable” to China, Wu Haitao, the Chinese deputy ambassador to the U.N., told the Security Council Friday. “There is no military option when it comes to the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, and [the] resort to force can only bring disastrous consequences to the peninsula.”
That’s a repudiation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s latest warnings that North Korea’s pursuit of the ability to strike the United States will end in war if the regime doesn’t relent. Wu also faulted Tillerson for suggesting that China has failed to put adequate pressure on the regime, citing their implementation of past U.N. sanctions. “China has made greater efforts and paid a higher price than anyone else,” Wu said, according to a U.N. translator. “It is irresponsible to doubt what China has done.”
RUSSIA SAYS IT DOESN’T HAVE NORTH KOREAN SLAVES: Russia defended its use of North Korean laborers and told Tillerson at the Friday U.N. meeting that the workers aren’t treated like slaves.
“I’d like to say to the distinguished secretary of state that the North Korean workers aren’t working in Russia in ‘slave-like conditions,’” said Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian envoy to the United Nations.
That was a direct response to Tillerson’s comments minutes earlier, when the top U.S. diplomat traveled to New York to deliver an explicit rebuke of China and Russia. Tillerson urged both countries to cut ties with North Korea, citing the need to pressure the regime into abandoning its nuclear weapons program before the U.S. is forced to take military action.
THE RUNDOWN
New York Times: Tillerson Speaks On A Largely Secret North Korea Contingency Plan
Yonhap News Agency: S. Korean, U.S. forces hold drill for removing North Korea’s WMDs
The Diplomat: Report: US Navy Destroyer Accidents To Temporarily Reduce Aegis Missile Defense Capacity
Breaking Defense: SECNAV Spencer Seeks Repeal of Sen. Inouye Statute After Pacific Collisions
New York Times: Deadly Taliban Attacks on NATO Convoy and Police in Afghanistan
Washington Post: How the Pentagon’s cyber offensive against ISIS could shape the future for elite U.S. forces
Defense & Aerospace Report: USCG’s Zukunft: ‘The Coast Guard Must Be Funded as a Military Service’
AP: Erdogan says Turkey will clear border of Syrian Kurds
Air Force Times: US plans $200 million buildup of European air bases flanking Russia
Wall Street Journal: Alleged North Korea Missile Broker Arrested in Australia
Reuters: U.N. to vote Monday on call for U.S. Jerusalem decision to be withdrawn
Defense One: What Putin Really Wants
The Cipher Brief: Iran’s “Kitten” Cyber Hackers Poised to Strike If Trump Shreds Nuke Deal
USNI News: VIDEO: Littoral Combat Ship USS Little Rock Commissioned in Wintry Weather
Calendar
TUESDAY | DEC. 19
9 a.m. 15th St. NW. Making Peace in Donbas? The Role of a Peacekeeping Mission with Ambassador Kurt Volker. atlanticcouncil.org
