[Nadia Schadlow](https://www.hoover.org/profiles/nadia-schadlow) writes in *Foreign Affairs* about the foreign policy a second Trump Administration would be wise to pursue. As she writes, “If Trump returns to the White House, he will step into a more hazardous geopolitical arena than the one he left four years earlier. Simply resuming the foreign policy of his first term will not be sufficient to navigate a complex environment in which U.S. rivals are arming at a rapid pace and, in the case of Russia and Iran, are engaged in regional wars. This is no longer just a competition; today’s conflicts could be a prelude to a wider war.”
Schadlow argues that the incoming Trump administration “would need to adopt a strategy of overmatch, a military concept that refers to combining capabilities in sufficient scale to ensure lopsided victories over the enemy in combat.”
Yet achieving overmatch capabilities will require overcoming challenges within the defense bureaucracy. Schadlow suggests that some of the qualities of the first Trump administration, such as its urgency and willingness to pursue a strategic reset in the US-China relationship, would need to be deployed once again; but this time to a new and graver set of security challenges facing the United States.
Whether Trump or Harris is elected, the next President will likely “need to build up the country’s military capabilities, fortify the domestic industrial base and reduce foreign economic dependencies, and consolidate key political alliances, all in service of strengthening the United States’ hand in the face of mounting geopolitical risks.”
Schadlow emphasizes the importance of economic power as a foundational element of military power generation. She argues, “The biggest step the United States should take in this direction is to incentivize investments in domestic industry, particularly in sectors that will strengthen the manufacturing base and help Washington establish greater control over the supply chains that support military production.”
Schadlow concludes that “If Washington is to retain its freedom of action and protect the liberties Americans have long enjoyed, it needs an overmatch strategy to meet the urgency of the times.”
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[Nadia Schadlow](https://www.hoover.org/profiles/nadia-schadlow) writes in *Foreign Affairs* about the foreign policy a second Trump Administration would be wise to pursue. As she writes, “If Trump returns to the White House, he will step into a more hazardous geopolitical arena than the one he left four years earlier. Simply resuming the foreign policy of his first term will not be sufficient to navigate a complex environment in which U.S. rivals are arming at a rapid pace and, in the case of Russia and Iran, are engaged in regional wars. This is no longer just a competition; today’s conflicts could be a prelude to a wider war.”
Schadlow argues that the incoming Trump administration “would need to adopt a strategy of overmatch, a military concept that refers to combining capabilities in sufficient scale to ensure lopsided victories over the enemy in combat.”
Yet achieving overmatch capabilities will require overcoming challenges within the defense bureaucracy. Schadlow suggests that some of the qualities of the first Trump administration, such as its urgency and willingness to pursue a strategic reset in the US-China relationship, would need to be deployed once again; but this time to a new and graver set of security challenges facing the United States.
Whether Trump or Harris is elected, the next President will likely “need to build up the country’s military capabilities, fortify the domestic industrial base and reduce foreign economic dependencies, and consolidate key political alliances, all in service of strengthening the United States’ hand in the face of mounting geopolitical risks.”
Schadlow emphasizes the importance of economic power as a foundational element of military power generation. She argues, “The biggest step the United States should take in this direction is to incentivize investments in domestic industry, particularly in sectors that will strengthen the manufacturing base and help Washington establish greater control over the supply chains that support military production.”
Schadlow concludes that “If Washington is to retain its freedom of action and protect the liberties Americans have long enjoyed, it needs an overmatch strategy to meet the urgency of the times.”