HOMELAND FOCUS?
In a separate but related development, the draft of a new National Defense Strategy reportedly submitted to Pete Hegseth, Secretary of the renamed Department of War, proposes that the US prioritise the security of the homeland.
Analysts have said that this signals a shift in focus from the China and Russia threat that has occupied the American strategic establishment for decades. Such a shift will encounter resistance from the traditionalists of US foreign policy.
In a Sep 7 piece in the New York Times, for instance, Rush Doshi, director of the Council on Foreign Relations’ China Strategy Initiative, and former US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell, argued that America alone cannot match China’s scale, but with allies it would be “no contest”.
Both Mr Doshi and Mr Campbell lean hawkish on China. “But if Trump keeps alienating US partners, we’ll never get there – and the next century will be China’s to lose,” Mr Doshi posted on X.
“As a post-colonial country, attempts to force India always backfire,” said Dr Aparna Pande, director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. “India views itself as an equal, not a junior partner of the US,” she told me.
Whatever problems or strategic convergences India and the US have had in the past, the current American administration’s style of diplomacy makes resolving issues more difficult. And a shift of focus to the homeland, and deprioritising China, would coincidentally support the argument that India needs to look out for itself.
Nirmal Ghosh, a former foreign correspondent, is an author and independent writer based in Singapore. He writes a monthly column for CNA, published every third Friday.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/india-united-states-us-modi-trump-ties-tariffs-china-deterrent-counterweight-5355891
