The National Security Strategy released by the White House earlier this month differs from the previous congressionally mandated strategies that have been prepared every four years. The 2017 NSS is different because it emphasizes the role of the economy: “Economic security is national security,” the new NSS avers.

President Barack Obama has responded to the horrible actions by the forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) and to the sharp turn in American public opinion by promising to degrade and eventually destroy this powerful terrorist group. But, not surprisingly, Mr Obama promises to achieve this without putting any American combat troops on the ground in Iraq or Syria and without any significant increase in military spending. What is happening in this battle reflects a more broadly misguided and underfunded US defence policy.