This week, Joe Biden signed into law his first military budget — the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 — which boosts “defense” spending higher than even under Donald Trump. The bill’s $778 billion price tag confirms that Biden intends to double down on the same “New Cold War” framework as the previous administration.

In its 2018 National Defense Strategy, Trump’s Defense Department promoted the idea that the United States is locked in an arms race with China and Russia, stating that “[t]he surest way to prevent war is to be prepared to win one.” To accomplish that ill-defined strategic end, central figures in the foreign policy establishment recommended swelling the military budget by 3 to 5 percent annually.

Biden’s Pentagon budget satisfies that demand. In this respect at least, it’s as if Trump never left office.