Intelligence community should monitor supply chains, says new natsec strategy
It's another example of the Trump administration's treatment of economic interests as national-security issues.
The U.S. intelligence community should monitor global supply chains as part of a sweeping goal to decouple the nation’s economy from foreign adversaries and advance American economic interests, according to the Trump administration's newly published National Security Strategy.
Published late on Thursday, the 33-page strategy document adds to Trump administration direction to federal agencies to treat economic policy as a national-security matter.
U.S. spy agencies “will monitor key supply chains and technological advances around the world to ensure we understand and mitigate vulnerabilities and threats to American security and prosperity,” the strategy reads.
Security and defense agencies have long monitored or sought to bring awareness to supply-chain issues to ensure operational security and the protection of U.S. forces; more comprehensive monitoring would require vaster efforts to discover and track where American companies and foreign rivals ship, produce and stockpile their goods and services around the world.
Some officials have argued for years that China and Russia should be barred from U.S. supply chains, but the nature of the global economy makes separating them out difficult and costly. Many supply chains are digital, which can further complicate decoupling efforts.
The strategy asserts that intelligence community analysts will support efforts to “identify strategic points and resources” in the Western Hemisphere to protect them and use them in developments with regional partners.
The document also directs federal agencies to lean more heavily on private-sector cybersecurity operators and regional partners to spot intrusions on U.S. networks and move toward what the strategy describes as “real-time” attribution and response.
It also envisions more strategic investment opportunities for American companies in the Western Hemisphere.
“We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access and harden existing and future cyber communications networks that take full advantage of American encryption and security potential,” the strategy says.
In January, the Trump administration expects to release a national cybersecurity strategy, which will focus on offensive cyber matters and more involvement by the private sector, a person familiar with the matter previously told Nextgov/FCW.