Chapter 2, Section IV. Pillar One: Regime Security Is Just Strategic Selfishness
- john raymond
- Jul 5
- 3 min read
We often hear that autocrats obsess over "regime security." But this phrase—neutral and clinical—obscures the brutal simplicity of what it actually is: strategic selfishness.
Regime security is not a matter of ideology or patriotism or political philosophy. It is the personal survival instinct of elite actors, rationalized into a governing strategy. It emerges not just in dictatorships, but in any system where accountability has collapsed. And in the modern era of asymmetric warfare, this instinct defines the battlefield.
To understand Trump—or Putin or Netanyahu—we must first grasp that regime security is not an authoritarian anomaly. It is a predictable consequence of unchecked selfishness in power.
Trump: The Self-Serving Traitor
Donald Trump isn’t a strategist in the traditional sense. He doesn’t operate with a grand ideological vision or long-term goals. Instead, he acts purely in pursuit of what benefits him personally in the moment: praise, loyalty, profit, protection.
He demands loyalty, not competence. He rewards sycophants and purges dissenters. His media ecosystem is designed not to inform the public but to shield him from criticism. He has used the Justice Department to punish enemies and protect allies. He pardoned criminals who lied for him. He undermined pandemic response to avoid electoral consequences. And when he lost the 2020 election, he attempted to overturn it—not to save the republic, but to save himself.
And why does Trump go to such lengths to align with Putin? Because Putin protects him. Because Russian support made him both wealthy and powerful. Because Trump believes—correctly—that siding with Putin advanced his own interests.
He doesn’t need to believe in the Russian cause. He doesn’t even need to understand Putin’s full strategy. All he needs is to see that the Kremlin’s help benefits him—and then act accordingly.
This is regime security in action. A president using the state to protect himself, not the country.
Putin: The Architect of Insecurity
Vladimir Putin operates under no illusions. He understands regime security as the central logic of survival in a post-truth world. And he has constructed his regime on this foundation.
He silences or kills critics. He poisons defectors. He controls the press. He crushes dissent not just to maintain power, but because he believes power is safety. Every action—from the annexation of Crimea to the invasion of Ukraine—is evaluated through the lens of personal regime survival.
Truth is not a virtue in Putin’s world. It is a vulnerability. So he replaces it with narrative domination. He funds propaganda abroad and censors it at home. He learned from Bush-era America: if you control the story, you control reality.
Netanyahu: The Emergency That Never Ends
Benjamin Netanyahu is no different. Facing corruption charges and political vulnerability, he forged alliances with extremists to stay in power. He relies on constant crises—internal and external—to justify authoritarian measures. The Israeli state becomes a vessel not for democracy or safety, but for his personal legal and political survival.
His war posture, like Putin’s and Trump’s, is as much about the domestic front as the international one. War is not the failure of politics—it is the politics, when the goal is regime security.
The First Pillar of Asymmetric War
This is why regime security is the first pillar of modern asymmetric warfare. It explains why autocrats lie, why they sow chaos, why they betray alliances and democratic norms.
Because to them, truth is dangerous. Systems are dangerous. Coordination is dangerous. Anything that might bind them to accountability or principle is a threat.
And this is what makes Trump so dangerous. He is not loyal to America. He is not loyal to the Constitution. He is loyal to himself. And in a world where Putin offers protection, support, power, and money—Trump’s loyalty flows there.
The selfishness is the signal. It is not incidental. It is not a character flaw that operates in parallel with his politics. It is the politics.
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