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The Pentagon has released a priority-shifting National Defense Strategy, capping off a week of animosity between the Trump administration of traditional allies like Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, the US Government neglected \u2014 even rejected \u2014 putting Americans and their concrete interests first,\u201d read the opening sentence.<\/p>\n
Coming in the wake of US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on some European partners in his bid to acquire Greenland, and falsely claiming that Nato forces “stayed a little back” from the frontline in Afghanistan<\/span>, the document will do little to lower the temperature.<\/p>\n As allies confront what some see as a hostile attitude from the US, they will almost certainly be unhappy to see that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s department will provide \u201ccredible options to guarantee US military and commercial access to key terrain\u201d, especially Greenland<\/span> and the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n It chastises US allies to take control of their own security and reasserts focus on dominance in the Western Hemisphere, above a longtime goal of countering China.<\/p>\n The 34-page document, the first since 2022, was highly political for a military blueprint, criticising partners from Europe to Asia for relying on previous US administrations to subsidise their defense.<\/p>\n It called for \u201ca sharp shift \u2014 in approach, focus, and tone”.<\/p>\n That translated to a blunt assessment that allies would take on more of the burden countering nations from Russia to North Korea.<\/p>\n Much like the White House\u2019s National Security Strategy that preceded it, the defense blueprint reinforces Trump\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d philosophy, which favors nonintervention overseas, questions decades of strategic relationships and prioritises US interests.<\/p>\n The National Defense Strategy last was published in 2022 under then-President Joe Biden and focused on China as America\u2019s \u201cpacing challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n From one crisis to another: A week in Trump-land that feels like an epoch<\/strong><\/p>\n Trump threatens tariffs against countries who oppose his Greenland plans<\/strong><\/p>\n Western Hemisphere <\/strong><\/p>\n The strategy simultaneously courts help from partners in America\u2019s backyard, while warning them that the US will \u201cactively and fearlessly defend America\u2019s interests throughout the Western Hemisphere.\u201d<\/p>\n It specifically points to access to the Panama Canal and Greenland.<\/p>\n It comes just days after Trump said he reached a \u201cframework of a future deal\u201d on Arctic security with NATO leader Mark Rutte that would offer the U.S. \u201ctotal access\u201d to Greenland, a territory of NATO ally Denmark.<\/p>\n China and the greater Asia-Pacific region<\/strong><\/p>\n The new policy document views China \u2014 which the Biden administration saw as a top adversary \u2014 as a settled force in the Indo-Pacific region that only needs to be deterred from dominating the US or its allies.<\/p>\n The goal \u201cis not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them,\u201d the document says. It later adds, \u201cThis does not require regime change or some other existential struggle.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China,\u201d it says, which follows efforts to climb down from a trade war sparked by the administration\u2019s sky-high tariffs. It says it will \u201copen a wider range of military-to-military communications\u201d with China\u2019s army.<\/p>\n Subscribe free to <\/strong>our weekly newsletter <\/strong><\/span>for exclusive and original coverage from ITV News. Direct to your inbox every Friday morning.<\/strong><\/p>\n The strategy, meanwhile, makes no mention of or guarantee to Taiwan<\/span>, the self-governing island that Beijing claims as its own and says it will take by force if necessary. The U.S. is obligated by its own laws to give military support to Taiwan.<\/p>\n By contrast, the Biden administration\u2019s 2022 strategy said the U.S. would \u201csupport Taiwan\u2019s asymmetric self-defense.\u201d<\/p>\n In another example of offloading regional security to allies, the document says, \u201cSouth Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited U.S. support.\u201d<\/p>\n Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n While saying that \u201cRussia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO\u2019s eastern members for the foreseeable future,\u201d the defense strategy asserts that NATO allies are much more powerful and so are \u201cstrongly positioned to take primary responsibility for Europe\u2019s conventional defense”.<\/p>\n It says the Pentagon will play a key role in NATO \u201ceven as we calibrate US force posture and activities in the European theater\u201d to focus on priorities closer to home.<\/p>\n The US already has confirmed that it will reduce its troop presence on NATO\u2019s borders with Ukraine, with allies expressing concern that the Trump administration might drastically cut their numbers and leave a security vacuum as European countries confront an increasingly aggressive Russia.<\/p>\n
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