US updates National Security Strategy, warns Europe’s peace calls aren’t backed by policy

The United States has updated its National Security Strategy, highlighting concerns over political instability in Europe and the ongoing war in Ukraine.

According to the strategy document, “European states cannot reform themselves if they are trapped in political crisis,” a situation the report says has left Washington at odds with European officials who hold “unrealistic expectations” regarding the conflict.

The document warns that many European governments operate under unstable minority coalitions and, in some cases, “trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition.”

Despite a broad desire for peace across Europe, the strategy notes that these aspirations “are not translated into policy, in large measure because of those governments’ subversion of democratic processes.”

The United States emphasised Europe’s significant advantage in conventional military power over Russia, while noting nuclear weapons remain an exception. The report describes Russia as an “existential threat” to many European states following its invasion of Ukraine.

Managing relations with Moscow, the document stresses, will require “significant U.S. diplomatic engagement, both to reestablish conditions of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of conflict between Russia and European states.”

The strategy identifies a swift end to hostilities in Ukraine as a core U.S. interest, stating it is necessary “to stabilise European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to ensure its survival as a viable state.”

By Aghakazim Guliyev