WIREDGOV

Much of the language coming out of the gathering of US military leaders this week could be dismissed as political spectacle. But international partners of the US should take seriously the US Administration’s views both on the utility of force, and its casual approach to its application domestically.

When news emerged last week that the newly-styled US ‘Secretary of War’ Pete Hegseth had ordered a gathering in the US of almost all general officers and senior non-commissioned officers from across the US military, speculation quickly mounted on the reasons for the rare – if not unprecedented – gathering, especially when it emerged that President Donald Trump was also going to be speaking. Guesses ranged from a public humiliation and potential firings of officers out of favour, to a discussion on the draft National Defense Strategy (NDS) which has reportedly been the subject of unfavourable feedback from many in uniform. In the end, neither materialised, and instead briefs that this was going to be about the ‘ethos’ of the Department of Defense – now unofficially the Department of War – were most accurate.

It would be easy to dismiss the near two-hours of speeches as a combination of US political theatre and macho posturing, especially given President Trump’s diversions into criticising his predecessor Joe Biden, renaming the Gulf of Mexico and musing on the aesthetics of modern warships. This Administration is hardly the first to be muscular in its language when talking about US military power, and many might point back to language from the Bush Administrations of the early 2000s. But several prominent messages stood out in terms of emphasising the military priorities of the second Trump Administration and possibly hinting at the future of the NDS.

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