The President’s Inbox Are We Ready? | Trump’s National Security Strategy, With Rebecca Lissner
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Dec 10, 2025 Rebecca Lissner, a senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and a former National Security Council official, delves into the impact of Trump's National Security Strategy on U.S. foreign and defense policy. She critiques post-Cold War overreach while stressing the importance of retaining liberal order gains. Lissner highlights distinct shifts in the 2025 strategy, emphasizing economic priorities over military concerns, and warns against overlooking China's expanding influence in Latin America.
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Strategy Guides The Bureaucracy
- National security strategies frame the president's worldview and guide mid-level bureaucrats' actions across agencies.
- A good NSS offers a messaging lodestar and signals priorities for resource allocation.
Critique Without Discarding Gains
- The new NSS sharply criticizes post–Cold War U.S. foreign policy for overreach and mistakes like Iraq.
- Rebecca Lissner warns we must weigh those critiques against the liberal order's clear benefits.
A Different Trump Strategy
- The 2025 NSS departs from Trump 1.0 by deprioritizing great-power framing and elevating economics and the Western Hemisphere.
- It largely omits clear assessments of Russia, Iran, and North Korea as strategic threats.