www.maritimeindia.org US NATIONAL STRATEGIES OF THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION: A FRAGILE EXERCISE IN SHUFFLING PRIORITIES Captain Sarabjeet S Parmar Keywords Arctic, Asia-Pacific, AUKUS, China, India, Indo-Pacific, Integrated Defence, QUAD, Russia, US National Defence Strategy, US National Security Strategy Introduction As per the Goldwater-Nichols Defence Reorganisation Act of 1986, the President of the US is required to submit to the US Congress an annual report on the National Security Strategy. 1 The last National Security Strategy (NSS) was released in 2017 by the Trump administration. 2 The incumbent Biden administration, has since assuming office, released a number of strategies that flow from the Interim National Security Strategic Guidance published in March 2021. 3 This document provided guidance to various offices and agencies to align their actions to the administration’s thought-process, even while the National Security Strategy itself was being worked-upon. These strategies, apart from the NSS released in October 2022 include the following: • The Indo-Pacific Strategy, February 2022. 4 • The Pacific Partnership Strategy, September 2022. 5 • The National Strategy for the Arctic Region, October 2022. 6 • The classified 2022 National Defence Strategy (NDS) forwarded to the US Congress on 28 March 2022 7 has recently been followed by the NDS meant for public consumption on 27 Oct 2022. 8 This 2022 NDS also includes the Nuclear Posture and Missile Defence Reviews of 2022. 1 National Security Strategy Archive, https://nssarchive.us/ 2 National Security Strategy of the United States of America, December 2017 (NSS 2017), http://nssarchive.us/wp- content/uploads/2020/04/2017.pdf 3 Interim National Security Strategic Guidance (2021), https://nssarchive.us/wp- content/uploads/2021/03/2021_Interim.pdf 4 US Indo-Pacific Strategy (2022), https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/U.S.-Indo-Pacific- Strategy.pdf 5 US Pacific Partnership Strategy (2022), https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Pacific- Partnership-Strategy.pdf 6 US National Strategy for the Arctic Region (2022), https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp- content/uploads/2022/10/National-Strategy-for-the-Arctic-Region.pdf 7 Fact Sheet: 2022 National Defence Strategy, https://media.defense.gov/2022/Mar/28/2002964702/-1/-1/1/NDS- FACT-SHEET.PDF