Jake Sullivan: Handing Off a World in Transition | TIME
Over the past couple of months, I have met regularly with my successor as National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz. As he said, during this transition, “For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity that they can play one administration off the other, they’re wrong.”
As an American, I wish the new National Security Council team well and hope they succeed in their mission to protect American interests and foster a world of greater peace and prosperity.
The next administration, like ours, will face a world in transition. The post-Cold War era is over. We are in a contest over the future of economics, technology, and values. That contest has brought change and challenge in the last four years.
I am proud of the fact that the United States has grown considerably stronger over that time. We are now better-positioned to prevail in that contest and to shape this new era in ways that advance our interests and reflect our ideals.
America’s alliances have never been stronger. NATO is bigger and more unified that ever. When we took office, nine allies spent 2% of their GDP on defense. Now it’s 23%, and the rest are on track to do so. When we took office, Europe had just signed a significant trade agreement with China. Now Europe is working with us to push back on China’s aggressive economic policies.
In the Indo-Pacific, our bilateral alliances and trilateral cooperation with Japan and Korea—and Japan and the Philippines—are at unprecedented highs. Along with Australia and the U.K., we’ve created the AUKUS partnership on nuclear-powered, conventionally-armed submarines. Our relationship with India is closer and more dynamic than ever. We’ve elevated and institutionalized the Quad with India, Japan, and Australia. This is not just better atmospherics—the steps we’ve taken have generated a material increase in our shared capabilities and decisive new advantages in our strategic competition with China.
In the Middle East, our partnerships with Israel, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, among others, are strong and dynamic. We built and acted alongside an unprecedented regional coalition to directly counter Iran’s attacks on Israel. And we engaged in tireless