FY2022 NDAA: Strategic Context
November 3, 2021
The Biden Administration stated efforts to align spending priorities with the President’s Interim National
Security Strategic Guidance (INSSG) helped shape its FY2022 defense budget request. By law, the
President is required to submit to Congress a National Security Strategy (NSS; 50 U.S.C §3043) and the
Secretary of Defense a National Defense Strategy (NDS; 10 U.S.C. §113). Officials said Secretary of
Defense Lloyd J. Austin III may submit the NDS in early 2022. In March, the President released the
INSSG, which stated the United States faces “growing rivalry” with China, Russia, and other
authoritarian states, and would “responsibly end America’s longest war in Afghanistan.”
Elements of the INSSG appear to build upon aspects of the Trump Administration’s strategic guidance
documents, including the 2017 NSS and 2018 NDS. The 2018 NDS unclassified summary emphasized
retaining a U.S. strategic competitive edge relative to China and Russia over countering violent extremist
organizations. This and the call for “increased and sustained investment” to counter evolving threats from
China and Russia marked a change in emphasis from previous strategy documents.
The two approaches appear to differ in that the 2018 NDS did not address the question of pandemics or
climate change as national security threats. The INSSG referenced “pandemics and other biological risks,
the escalating climate crisis, cyber and digital threats, international economic disruptions, protracted
humanitarian crises,” among other threats.
The INSSG pledged to prioritize “new resources for diplomacy and development” and identified defense
priorities as follows:
Military personnel. (“... we will continue to invest in the people who serve in our all-
volunteer forces and their families.”);
Readiness. (“We will sustain readiness and ensure that the U.S. Armed Forces remain the
best trained and equipped force in the world.”);
Force structure. (“... we will assess the appropriate structure, capabilities, and sizing of
the force, and, working with the Congress, shift our emphasis from unneeded legacy
platforms and weapons systems to free up resources for investments in the cutting-edge
technologies and capabilities that will determine our military and national security
advantage in the future.”);
Acquisition processes. (“We will streamline the processes for developing, testing,
acquiring, deploying, and securing these technologies.”);
