Topic: Nuclear Proliferation
“By far the most significant danger to Americans’ security, freedoms, and prosperity is China.”
Miller’s position is that we must prevent China from becoming the most powerful country in the world, and says that they’re currently #2, behind the United States of America. He notes that they’re expanding their military and their nuclear capacity.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.1: Department of Defense here.
“The most severe immediate threat that Beijing’s military poses, however, is to Taiwan and other U.S. allies along the first island chain in the Western Pacific. If China could subordinate Taiwan or allies like the Philippines, South Korea, and Japan, it could break apart any balancing coalition that is designed to prevent Beijing’s hegemony over Asia. Accordingly, the United States must ensure that China does not succeed. This requires a denial defense: the ability to make the subordination of Taiwan or other U.S. allies in Asia prohibitively difficult.”
Miller acknowledges that Russia, Iran, and North Korea also pose threats to the U.S. He goes on to argue for expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and spending more money on defense in order to meet the goal of “ensuring that China does not succeed”.
He then goes into specific reforms he recommends. Among them are increasing defense burden-sharing amongst our allies, sustaining support for Israel (who is currently committing a genocide), and expanding our nuclear arsenal in order to compete with Russia and China.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.1: Department of Defense here.
“Informal congressional notification or “tiered review” is a hinderance to ensuring timely sales to our global partners. The tiered review process is not codified in law; it is merely a practice by which the Department of State provides a preview of prospective arms transfers before Congress is formally notified.”
He’s arguing here for ending the tiered review process, which would result in the President being able to unilaterally transfer or sell arms to other nations without Congressional approval. This is a horrifying recommendation. He continues, “Use the tiered review process only when unanimous congressional support is guaranteed in order to eliminate the “weaponization” by select Members of Congress that has prevented billions of dollars of arms sales from moving into formal congressional notification.” (Project 2025, Section 2.1: Department of Defense, Christopher Miller, page 133, paragraph 5.)
If you’re only using the review process when congressional support is “guaranteed”, that’s a completely pointless review process.
Full contextual analysis of Section 2.1: Department of Defense here.
“The U.S. nuclear arsenal needs to be updated and reinvigorated if we are to be able to deal effectively with threats from China, Russia, and other adversaries.”
McNamee goes on to mandate that we “Fund the design, development, and deployment of new nuclear warheads, including the production of plutonium pits in quantity”, “Expand the U.S. Navy and develop new nuclear naval reactors to ensure that the Navy has the nuclear propulsion it needs to secure America’s strategic interests”, and “End ineffective and counterproductive nonproliferation activities like those involving Iran and the United Nations.” (Project 2025, Section 3.2: Department of Energy and Related Commissions, Bernard L. McNamee, page 404, bulleted list.)
This proposal is problematic from geopolitical, environmental, economic, and ethical perspectives. I break down the consequences of McNamee’s recommended actions in the full analysis linked below.
Full contextual analysis of Section 3.3: Department of Energy and Related Commissions here.