Washington plays security game of hegemony

Donald Trump is the first US president to unveil a National Security Strategy in his first year in office. And the release of the document on Monday, widely seen as an important move that broadly reflects the US' foreign policy, highlights the Trump administration's result-dominated approach to global issues and desperation to achieve big results.

The document, in general, is a continuation of former US president Barack Obama's policy to use the National Security Strategy as a tool to maintain the US' hegemony and status. But there are evident differences between the two documents in terms of strategic ideology on which they are based and their paths of implementation.

First, Trump's strategy is based on "principled realism". The document admits the Trump administration will "inherit" the realistic inclination of the US' traditional diplomacy and stresses the importance of national interests and military strength. It also emphasizes the importance of "principles" such as "America First", that is, to maintain global peace in a way that maximizes US interests with the help of its superior military power.