Here’s what the new National Security Strategy says about threats to critical infrastructure

The White House released a new National Security Strategy that focuses heavily on economic superiority and Western Hemisphere security, citing “energy dominance” with an eye to “help maintain our advantage in cutting-edge technologies such as AI” as key and declaring at its outset that “not every country, region, issue, or cause — however worthy — can be the focus of American strategy.”

The last update of the NSS was released in October 2022 under the Biden administration. That version singled out China as “the only competitor with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.” It said the U.S. would “aim to deter cyber attacks from state and non state actors and will respond decisively with all appropriate tools of national power to hostile acts in cyberspace, including those that disrupt or degrade vital national functions or critical infrastructure.”

The 33-page Trump administration strategy that was quietly released Thursday says the United States wants “a resilient national infrastructure that can withstand natural disasters, resist and thwart foreign threats, and prevent or mitigate any events that might harm the American people or disrupt the American economy.”

“No adversary or danger should be able to hold America at risk,” it adds.

In the “principles” section of the NSS, “competence and merit” are highlighted as “among our greatest civilizational advantages” and linked to functionality of critical systems. “Should competence be destroyed or systematically discouraged, complex systems that we take for granted — from infrastructure to national security to education and research — will cease to function,” it says.

In a section dedicated to the administration’s goal to “reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere,” infrastructure security is cited in the context of foreign relations. “The terms of our alliances, and the terms upon which we provide any kind of aid, must be contingent on winding down adversarial outside influence — from control of military installations, ports, and key infrastructure to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined,” the NSS says.

That part of the NSS discusses private-sector collaboration and regional investment in line with the strategy’s security goals. “We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access, and harden existing and future cyber communications networks that take full advantage of American encryption and security potential,” the document continues, adding that “we should make every effort to push out foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region.”

A section focused on Asia talks about China getting “rich and powerful” over the years and trying to “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China.”

The strategy does not mention China’s cyberattacks against critical U.S. networks, including the “Typhoons” campaign of embedding state-sponsored cyber actors in U.S. critical infrastructure with the potential to unleash crippling attacks. A part of the NSS that says “the United States must protect and defend our economy and our people from harm, from any country or source” mentions intellectual property theft and industrial espionage, influence operations and “threats against our supply chains that risk U.S. access to critical resources, including minerals and rare earth elements.”

“The U.S. Government’s critical relationships with the American private sector help maintain surveillance of persistent threats to U.S. networks, including critical infrastructure. This in turn enables the U.S. Government’s ability to conduct real-time discovery, attribution, and response (i.e., network defense and offensive cyber operations) while protecting the competitiveness of the U.S. economy and bolstering the resilience of the American technology sector,” the NSS states. “Improving these capabilities will also require considerable deregulation to further improve our competitiveness, spur innovation, and increase access to America’s natural resources. In doing so, we should aim to restore a military balance favorable to the United States and to our allies in the region.”

The NSS mentions Russia in the context of the war on Ukraine and the desire to “reestablish conditions of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass.” It also lists as a priority “ending the perception, and preventing the reality, of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.” It does not mention Russia’s targeting of U.S. and global critical infrastructure.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday on state TV that the “adjustments we’re seeing” to the NSS are “largely consistent with our vision.”

POLITICO reported Wednesday that the releases of the NSS and forthcoming National Defense Strategy were delayed as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent “wanted to soften some of the language concerning Chinese activities.” In a speech Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the administration seeks “respectful relations with China” including “respecting the historic military buildup [China is] undertaking.”

“China stands ready to work with the U.S. to maintain the steady development of the bilateral relationship and at the same time will firmly defend our sovereignty, security and development interests,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told reporters today.