Question

National security policy is a balancing act between

Answer 1

National security policy is a balancing act between Military force and Diplomacy.

Military forces are needed when a direct threat exist and we need to take care of it immediately to protect our people from hurting.
Meanwhile, diplomacy is the acts to maintain peace with another group/country and prevent the threat from happening in the first place.

Answer 2

National Security Policy is a balancing act between Military Efforts and Diplomacy.

National Security Policy, in simple words, is a framework developed for describing how a country provides security for itself and its citizens.

It's necessary in order to address all potential threats in an understandable manner, to increase effectiveness of security, to build a consensus and awareness of the threats and the actions being taken to make sure everyone is safe as well as enhancing international cooperation.

For this reason, we can understand it as a balance of Military efforts in order to protect the state, as well as diplomacy efforts so as to better cooperate with other nations to fight threats or deal with them using a diplomatic approach.