When it comes to NATO, the National Defense Strategy states the United States “will deter Russian adventurism, defeat terrorists who seek to murder innocents, and address the arc of instability building on NATO's periphery,” thus creating a juxtaposition, rather than a hierarchy, of those issues. This phrasing might be an attempt to avoid inflaming the current intra-alliance debate on how to balance issues on the southern flank (terrorism and mass migration) and the eastern flank (Russian aggressive military activities), but this choice seems to contradict the strategy's overall message that great power competition is back, and will be the focus of U.S. effort.
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