Trump’s aggression mirrored in US’s security document

The US's National Security Strategy (NSS) of 2025 has attracted intense scrutiny, given the US's effort to ensure its primacy in a global order drifting towards multi-polarity.

- Sujan R Chinoy

It emphasises the America First approach visible in all of the Trump administration’s moves and statements in the arena of geopolitics, including the military operation in Venezuela and the US President's latest assertions on Greenland despite its post-World War II ally, Europe, being resolute in its opposition to this.Underlining Trumpian exasperation that the global order no longer serves core US interests, NSS 2025 reveals a clear tilt toward Westphalian principles — State sovereignty, territorial integrity, and military primacy — while sidelining post-Westphalian norms such as universal human rights, conditional sovereignty, binding treaties, and the primacy of the people over State interests. In practice, the US continues to use human rights and norms instrumentally, but humanitarian interventions are no longer treated as moral obligations. This “flexible realism” recommends stable relations with States whose governance differs from the US's, notably Russia and China.