The president’s National Security Strategy released Friday had a specific target: Russia.
In the security portion of the 2015 strategy, Russia is mentioned 15 times, including condemnation for the aggressive action it has taken in Ukraine in the last year and more veiled references to competition in energy and space.
It’s a long way from the president’s 2010 strategy, which mentioned Russia nearly as many times, but in the context of building partnerships and cooperation, even “to build a stable, substantive, multidimensional relationship with Russia, based on mutual interests.”
To see how much has changed, here are excerpts from the 2015 strategy:
• “We insist on safe and responsible behaviors in the sky and at sea. We … condemn deliberate attacks on commercial passenger traffic.”
• “Russia’s violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity — as well as its belligerent stance toward other neighboring countries — endangers international norms that have largely been taken for granted since the end of the Cold War.”
• “In lockstep with our European allies, we are enforcing tough sanctions on Russia to impose costs and deter future aggression.”
• “We mobilized and are leading global efforts to impose costs to counter Russian aggression…”
• “Security concerns have been exacerbated by European dependence on Russian natural gas and the willingness of Russia to use energy for political ends…”
Russia and “collaboration” did surface in Friday’s document, but only after a long litany of strategic warnings. The 2015 plan is a big shift from the 2010 strategy of shaping a strategic partner to now labeling the country an aggressor and referring to it — as Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday — as “the Russian bear.”
