5-7 page essay using the “Ends, Ways and Means” model.

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National Security Decision Making Capstone Challenge 2021. Notional exercise material for educational purposes only.

2021 (nspm-1)

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GUIDING PRINCIPLES The highest priority of the President of the United States is to keep the American people safe. The president is true to our ideals and values while protecting the homeland against 21stcentury threats. By preventing terrorist attacks on American soil and abroad, contain- ing rogue states seeking to destabilize the international system, leading multilateral efforts to combat the threat of WMDs by state and nonstate actors, and meeting the realities of energy and environmental security, our best interests are preserved. In 2021, we face new strategic rivalries for resource control, energy security, and economic prosperity; and old military rivalries and confl icts in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The United States strives to engage, prevent, and resolve confl icts worldwide through multilateral channels, in- ternational organizations and preventive diplomacy.

All of our efforts are underwritten by America’s desire and ability to lead where US power is required. We will cooperate with allies and support respective diplomatic, economic, political, and military capabilities in order to counter today’s challenges, but will reserve the right to act unilaterally if it is in the interest of the United States. Our country possesses the attributes that have supported our leadership throughout the past several centuries. These attributes include our strong alliances, an unmatched military and the resolve to use it to defend America and its allies, the world’s largest economy, a strong democracy, and a society whose values are being emulated all over the world. In 2021, America stands strengthened and determined to meet the many challenges of this young century. We are striving for an international order advanced by US leadership that promotes peace, security, sustainability, and opportunity through stronger cooperation to meet global challenges.

NONPROLIFERATION AND NUCLEAR SECURITY There is no greater threat to the American people than weapons of mass destruction, particularly the danger posed by the pursuit of nuclear weapons by violent extremists and their proliferation to additional states. The United States will use all means necessary to protect itself and deny the proliferation of WMDs to these groups and state actors. The United States also remains committed to its external security guarantees to our allies. To that end, we will not tolerate the transfer of nuclear weapons material or technologies that may jeopardize the security of the United States, our allies, and partners. During the last decade, the US government has committed itself to nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. To that end, we have reduced our nuclear stockpile and reliance on nuclear deterrence while ensuring the reliability and effectiveness of our deterrent. We remain committed to multilateral efforts—and particularly the framework established by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT)—to reduce the threat of nuclear proliferation.

NUCLEAR POLICY The United States remains committed not to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states that are in compliance with the NPT, even if they attacked America with biological or chemical weapons or launched a cyber attack. For the last decade, the fundamental role of nuclear weapons has been to deter nuclear attacks on the United States, allies, or partners. While we strive for a nuclear weapon free world, we are preserving all the instruments of power, including nuclear weapons, which are necessary to ensure that the American people are safe and secure. To that end, we continue to follow a policy of graduated options, a combination of old and new conventional weapons, including cyber warfare.

COUNTERTERRORISM We have made tremendous progress in disrupting, dismantling, and defeating al-Qaeda and its affi liates throughout the world. We rec- ognize that the theater for combatting Islamic terrorism has shifted to Asia and we reiterate our commitment to allies and countries who seek US support in defeating terrorist groups. We continue to implement a strategy of denying them safe haven, strengthening our front- line partners, securing our homeland, pursuing justice in line with universal human rights standards, and countering a bankrupt agenda of extremism and murder with an agenda of world unity, prosperity, and peace.

We strongly support existing efforts by regional governments to discredit extremist ideologies and continue to demonstrate the compat- ibility of Islam with the rule of law, human rights and democracy. We recognize that in the Muslim World, Islam provides the ethical framework for modern democratic institutions. Respective funds in the U.S. Department of State will continue to fi nance both grass roots and large-scale endeavors by governments as well as NGOs at strengthening human rights and democratic institutions across the Muslim World.

National Security Decision Making Capstone Challenge 2021. Notional exercise material for educational purposes only.

national security policy memorandum 2021 (nspm-1)

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FOREIGN POLICY As our security continues to be underwritten by our military power, we will strive to put more emphasis on conducting a foreign policy that refl ects the realities of the 21st century. As such, we are investing more in the tools of civilian engagement of diplomacy and have given the State Department the greatest budget increase in the history of the United States. We have recognized the changes that have taken place in the last decade and begun to move from a strategy of hard-power based diplomacy—putting a premium on coercion and control—to a smart -power based diplomacy that will allow us to lead and infl uence through means of targeted strategic communica- tions, foreign assistance, civic action, and linked economic reconstruction and development.

We will pursue a resolute diplomacy, while exercising restraint. We continue to rely on our power, but we will do so with patience. We continue to deter and contain our enemies, but it will be coupled with a commitment to détente and engagement.

ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGY SECURITY The protection of the global commons remains a core objective of national security. The United States strives to be the world leader in preserving the environment for future generations. Appreciating the impact of our actions on the environment, the U.S. government seeks sustainability in all our courses of actions: the use of economic, military, diplomatic or informational instruments of power must not come at the expense of future generations.

Strategic resources—including fossil fuels, other natural resources, and rare metals needed for civilian industrial use and military ap- plications—represent a major national security priority for the United States. It is our policy to further reduce dependency on fossil fuels and to seek alternative energy sources. While we appreciate that scarcity of energy resources and other rare elements may provide sup- plier countries with strategic depth, the United States will not tolerate “resource blackmailing” or any kind of politically led disruption by supplied countries to strategic resources. It is our commitment to solve disputes concerning resource security through multilateral efforts and/or respective environmental regimes. We continue to strive to protect the global common market and monitor, prevent, and counter environmental contributions to confl ict and instability in the global arena.

ECONOMIC SECURITY Our economic well-being continues to be a major linchpin of our country’s national security. We strive to remain the world’s most pros- perous economy underwritten by tremendous human capital, our economic institutions, natural resources, and an unmatched fi nancial and industrial base. We embrace the forces of the free market and see international competition as a way to make ourselves stronger. While we reject protectionism, it is the priority of the US government to fi rst invest in American education, research and sciences, energy sources, and the infrastructure to make all of our economic sectors competitive. We will apply our economic instruments of power to advance our interests, but we will also use them to help other countries achieve economic development.

HOMELAND SECURITY We have experienced yet again that our borders are not invincible and remain, therefore, on the highest alert to protect the American homeland. Agencies comprising civil defense, emergency response, law enforcement, customs, border patrol, and immigration are in the process of countering these threats. These agencies identify and interdict threats and deny hostile actors the ability to operate within our borders or in any other given safe haven in the world. We are maintaining effective control of our physical borders and have the capabilities to disrupt and dismantle transnational terrorists and criminal organizations. Our homeland security relies on our continuous commitment to fi rst rely on unilateral courses of action.

DEFENSE In 2021, the use of force seems a relic of the wars of the 20th century. The United States seeks peace, stability, and sustainability and will only use military force to defend our allies, our people, and our homeland. We have also honed our commitment to humanitarian protection on numerous occasions and will protect civilians facing a humanitarian crisis through the use of force. While the US govern- ments seeks primarily to draw on diplomacy, development, and international organizations to prevent and resolve confl icts worldwide, our military defense capabilities remain underwritten by our forces across all domains—land, air, sea, space, and cyber. We have a mandate to prevent and counter rogue states challenging the international status quo and to deny any power hegemonic aspirations over any given hemisphere. We are committed to the security of our allies and partners and will assist them to build capacity to fulfi ll their responsibilities to contribute to regional and global security. When force is the only option after all other instruments of power have been exhausted, we will use it in a way that refl ects American values and international legitimacy by working with international and regional organizations. Ultimately, the United States seeks peace and security. We recognize that peace can only be achieved and maintained if international treaties are upheld, international law and human rights law respected and foreign policies governed by the universal sanc- tity of human morality.

National Security Decision Making Capstone Challenge 2021. Notional exercise material for educational purposes only.

national security policy memorandum 2021 (nspm-1)