PYQ Relevance[UPSC 2019] “What introduces friction into the ties between India and the United States is that Washington is still unable to find for India a position in its global strategy, Which would satisfy India’s National self- esteem and ambitions” Explain with suitable examples. Linkage: The question addresses power asymmetries and strategic hierarchy in India-U.S. relations, a recurring theme in GS II (International Relations). The article shows how the new U.S. National Security Strategy’s conditional and transactional approach prevents India from securing an equal strategic position, sustaining friction in bilateral ties. |
Mentor’s Comment
This article analyses the United States’ 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) and its ideological foundations. It identifies three structural revolutions, political, foreign policy, and economic, that collectively signal a shift from post-war liberal internationalism towards a conditional, coercive, and hierarchical global order. The piece is relevant for GS II and GS III, particularly debates on global governance, multilateralism, economic nationalism, and evolving notions of sovereignty.
Introduction
The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy represents a decisive departure from the post-1945 American approach to global leadership. Rather than reforming existing multilateral institutions, the strategy reframes governance, alliances, and economic interdependence as instruments of leverage. The NSS reveals a deeper transformation in American statecraft, one that normalises harm, conditionality, and coercion as legitimate tools of power. These changes are best understood through three interlinked revolutions reshaping American power.
Project 2025Meaning: Project 2025 is a conservative policy blueprint prepared by the Heritage Foundation and allied think tanks to restructure the U.S. federal state if Republicans return to power. Core Features:
Significance: Project 2025 provides the domestic ideological foundation for the new U.S. National Security Strategy by redefining governance as an instrument of power rather than restraint. New U.S. National Security Strategy (2025)Meaning: The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy outlines Washington’s approach to global power, prioritising great-power competition, economic leverage, and conditional alliances. Key Shifts:
Significance: The NSS signals a structural shift from liberal internationalism to hierarchical global governance, with direct implications for India, the Global South, and multilateral institutions. |
Political Revolution: Shrinking Civic Space as Statecraft
Core Transformation
- Political Morality: Replaces institutional restraint with instrumental governance, where harm is treated as a policy design feature rather than an unintended consequence.
- Civic Norms: Weakens norms of accountability, public reason, and institutional deference.
- Cultural Governance: Treats internal cohesion, ideological alignment, and demographic stability as national security assets.
Institutional Outcomes
- Executive Centralisation: Consolidates authority by reducing the autonomy of independent institutions.
- Administrative Hardship: Integrates regulatory punishment, purges, and compliance costs into routine governance.
- Ideological Statecraft: Reframes pluralism and dissent as vulnerabilities rather than democratic strengths.
Foreign Policy Revolution: Conditionality Replacing Predictability
Strategic Reorientation
- Alliance Retrenchment: Replaces automatic security guarantees with conditional, transactional commitments.
- Geographic Reprioritisation: Downgrades Europe while re-centering the Indo-Pacific as the primary theatre.
- Migration Securitisation: Elevates migration from a social issue to a core national security threat.
Operational Consequences
- Multilateral Erosion: Treats international institutions as constraints on sovereignty.
- Partner Selection: Prioritises ideological conformity and burden-sharing over shared norms.
- Strategic Fragmentation: Produces unstable alliances and reduces crisis predictability.
Economic Revolution: From Integration to Leverage
Structural Shift
- Globalisation Reframing: Treats economic interdependence as exposure rather than mutual benefit.
- Debt and Finance: Formalises the withdrawal from development-oriented global finance.
- Trade Instrumentalisation: Uses tariffs, sanctions, and supply chain controls as coercive tools.
Systemic Effects
- Unequal Distribution: Concentrates economic disruption on weaker states and peripheral economies.
- Supply Chain Reconfiguration: Promotes diversification aligned with geopolitical loyalty.
- Domestic Shielding: Absorbs inflationary and export shocks internally while externalising costs.
The Return of Imperial Logic in Global Governance
Underlying Continuity
- Hierarchical Order: Restores a world system based on power asymmetry rather than rule-based equality.
- Entitlement Framework: Normalises the strong imposing costs while the weak absorb disruption.
- Territorial Minimalism: Exercises influence without formal empire through economic and institutional control.
Conceptual Innovation
- Architecture of Cruelty: Integrates suffering into governance logic, rendering harm politically invisible and administratively routine.
- Bureaucratic Normalisation: Converts coercion into technical procedure rather than overt domination.
Conclusion
The 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy marks a structural redefinition of American power. Through political centralisation, alliance conditionality, and economic coercion, the strategy abandons the stabilising logic of liberal internationalism. The three revolutions together signal a return to hierarchical global governance, where power is exercised through managed disruption rather than shared rules. The consequences are global, systemic, and enduring.
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