National Security Strategy (NSS)

The National Security Strategy, signed by the President, addresses the tasks that, as a nation, are necessary to shape the global environment and provide enduring security for the American people. It provides a broad strategic context for employing military capabilities in concert with other instruments of national power. The NSS is typically compiled by the National Security Council for the President’s signature. The current mandate for the President to deliver to Congress a comprehensive, annual “national security strategy report” derives from the National Security Act of 1947, as amended by the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986. This legislation requires that a strategy report be submitted to Congress annually, on the date the President submits the budget for the following fiscal year.

The legislation mandates the discussion of five main points:
(1) The worldwide interests, goals, and objectives of the United States that are vital to the national security of the United States;
(2) The foreign policy, worldwide commitments, and national defense capabilities of the United States necessary to deter aggression and to implement the national security strategy of the United States;
(3) The proposed short-term and long-term uses of the political, economic, military, and other elements of the national power of the United States to protect or promote the interests and achieve the goals and objectives referred to in paragraph;
(4) The adequacy of the capabilities of the United States to carry out the national security strategy of the United States, including an evaluation of the balance among the capabilities of all elements of the national power of the United States to support the implementation of the national security strategy;
(5) Such other information as may be necessary to help inform Congress on matters relating to the national security strategy of the United States.

The current 2022 National Security Strategy can be found at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Biden-Harris-Administrations-National-Security-Strategy-10.2022.pdf

Here is a Brookings panel discussion with Colin Kahl, the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, regarding the National Security Strategy, held shortly after its release:
https://www.brookings.edu/events/the-2022-national-defense-strategy-a-conversation-with-colin-kahl/