Intelligence strategy reflects outdated zero-sum mentality

The United States released its National Intelligence Strategy 2023 on Aug 10. The document reflects its view on security and its hysteria in the face of the current complicated security circumstances, exposing some outdated dangerous mentality and thinking in its national security strategy.

The Cold War thinking of the US is evident. Although some people in the US intelligence community have been living in a multipolar world for more than 30 years, their brains are still stuck in the Cold War era of bipolar confrontation. As a result, they keep looking for a "perfect adversary", such as China now, to show their "talents" and "value".

They have an obvious zero-sum mentality as regards "absolute security". The US pursues its own security while ignoring common security or the concerns of other countries. In a way, the US still adheres to the law of the jungle, which only traps other countries in the "prisoner's dilemma" of mutual distrust, ultimately making the US itself less secure. The "America First" policy has already become a source of turmoil and suffering in the world.

The US is used to a hegemonic way of thinking featuring US exceptionalism. The formation of a security shaping capability commensurate with global hegemony is the goal of the US intelligence community. The Central Intelligence Agency tries to maintain the declining US hegemony through approaches combining intelligence and diplomacy. No matter how the ways and means change, the underlying logic of US hegemony has never changed, and the arrogance and prejudice against other countries have not changed either. The unilateralism and egotism of the US are triggering increasingly strong criticism and opposition from the international community.

There is no doubt that Washington promotes a confrontational way of thinking and forces other countries to join cliques of various kinds invariably with the US at their center. The emphasis on the role of an ally is the biggest difference between the Joe Biden administration's foreign policy and that of the Donald Trump administration.

The ongoing establishment of "alliances and partnerships" is in fact an attempt to coerce other countries into taking sides, thus tying them firmly to the intelligence chariot of the US, unlike during the Trump era, when an ally was even expendable if it did not serve US interests anymore.