Should we worry about America’s security strategy?

The Briefing Room

BBC

News, News Commentary

4.8 • 731 Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

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Summary

As both the year and the current series of The Briefing Room draw to a close, Europe and much of the world have been digesting a lengthy document outlining the Trump administration’s view of foreign policy. The National Security Strategy covers much of the globe but extra special vitriol was reserved for Europe with dire warnings that the continent is facing “civilisational erasure” partly due to immigration. At the same time the growing influence of “patriotic European parties” (those on the far right) is welcomed. But there’s more - the US wants to dominate the “Western Hemisphere” - the Americas and countries on its doorstep. It wants more trade with Asia and China, as well as the Middle East. But there are notable absences -there's no talk of a significant threat from either Russia or China. David Aaronovitch and guests discuss what all this means and ask how worried we, in Europe, should be about the current US view of the world?

Guests: Frank Gardner, BBC Security Correspondent Shashank Joshi, Defence Editor, The Economist Rebecca Lissner, Senior fellow for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and lecturer, Jackson School of Global Affair, Yale University. Dr Christoph Heusgen, Former Chairman Munich Security Conference and former German Ambassador to United Nations

Presenter: David Aaronovitch Producers: Caroline Bayley, Kirsteen Knight, Cordelia Hemming Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele Sound engineer: Neil Churchill Editor Richard Vadon

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.
0:09.8	On the fourth this month, the White House published its national security strategy,
0:15.0	a document normally created once per presidential term.
0:19.0	The contents of this one were so radical and departed so far from previous strategies
0:23.6	that the gasps of alarm and from some unlikely places the size of relief
0:28.6	must have been audible from outer space.
0:31.6	Just as the Trump Tariffs have threatened to turn world trade on its head,
0:35.6	so this strategy is seen as upending the whole system of post-war alliances.
0:40.6	So, does it? And what does it mean for the world and for us in the UK?
0:46.2	Step into the last briefing room of 2025 and together we'll find out.
0:53.6	First, I'm joined by the BBC security correspondent, Frank Gardner.
0:58.2	Frank Gardner, what is this document, the National Security Strategy?
1:02.8	It's a very important document, and it's one that's been quite surprising, certainly for
1:07.5	people in Europe, because it is a complete departure from previous US national security
1:14.3	strategies. The last one that Donald Trump's presidency issued was in 2017. And what it does is it sets
1:20.7	out the presidency or the White House's view of the world and what it sees as the challenges,
1:30.5	priorities, and in the past, the threats.
1:38.6	Although, strangely, this document doesn't, unlike previous documents, depict Russia and China as threats to the United States. If anything, it depicts Europe's current trajectory as the threat. It talks
1:47.5	about Europe being threatened with civilizational erasure because of its lax immigration policies.
1:54.1	And there is no mention of Russia being a threat. China only gets a few mentions and is really
1:59.4	talked about in terms of an economic competitor,
2:03.2	but not as a threat.
	...

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