What Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy Means For The World

In this Conflicted Conversation, Thomas speaks with global finance and security analyst Giri Rajendran about the Trump Administration’s newly published National Security Strategy — what it signals, what it omits, and what it suggests about America’s role in a multipolar world.

Thomas and Giri discuss:

How this report differs from previous US National Security Strategies

The end of the old rules-based order of liberal internationalism

The Middle East: a phase shift toward deeper economic engagement

China: economic and industrial competition, not ideological crusade

Europe: NATO burden-sharing, culture-war politics, and coercion by inducement

Russia as a potential ally, no longer an enemy

Whether global governance can exist without global institutions

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Conflicted is a Message Heard production.

Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren.

This episode was produced and edited by Thomas Small.

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