WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, outlining a new national security blueprint for his last two years in office, warned against American “overreach” abroad Friday, even as he cast the United States as an indispensable force in combating global challenges including terrorism, climate change and cyberthreats.
The 29-page document released by the White House hews closely to Obama’s long-held views and forecasts no major shifts in the military campaign against Islamic State militants or in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Obama said threat of terrorism against the homeland “has diminished, but still persists” and vowed to degrade extremist groups like the Islamic State using counterterrorism operations and global coalitions, not large-scale, American-led ground wars.
“The United States will always defend our interests and uphold our commitments to allies and partners,” he wrote in an introduction to the White House strategy paper. “But we have to make hard choices among many competing priorities and we must always resist the over-reach that comes when we make decisions based upon fear.”
The president is required by law to send Congress a national security strategy annually. However, most presidents, including Obama, have done so only sporadically. Obama’s previous memo to lawmakers came in 2010 and formalized his desire to broaden U.S. national security posture beyond anti-terrorism campaigns.
The blueprint was met with criticism from congressional Republicans. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Obama’s foreign policy doctrine had “led the world into chaos” and left the U.S. “less secure and at greater risk.”
Obama’s critics have accused him of putting his desire to keep the U.S. out of overseas conflicts ahead of the need for more robust action against the world’s bad actors.
