In the period before the confrontation between Russia and Ukraine and Russia’s invasion, the United States government announced its new military doctrine. Its new approach and how it might maintain control was expressed in a Pentagon-authored paper, the National Defense Strategy that became official policy.
It involved abandoning its “war on terror” approach and resuming its push to remain the pre-eminent military power. Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were sold as a means of protecting the world from a threat. The result was insecurity and the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of civilians. The US began to appreciate that the remnants of its international prestige lay in tatters and, as its economic power was also waning, something needed to be done.
The word from Washington was: “Today, we are emerging from a period of strategic…
