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The Pentagon released a priority-shifting\u00a0National Defense Strategy\u00a0late Friday that chastised U.S. allies to take control of their own security and reasserted the\u00a0Trump administration\u2019s focus\u00a0on 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, criticizing partners from Europe to Asia for relying on previous U.S. administrations to subsidize their defense. It called for \u201ca sharp shift \u2014 in approach, focus, and tone.\u201d That translated to a blunt assessment that allies would take on more of the burden countering nations from Russia to North Korea.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor too long, the U.S. Government neglected \u2014 even rejected \u2014 putting Americans and their concrete interests first,\u201d read the opening sentence.<\/p>\n
It capped off a\u00a0week of animosity\u00a0between President Donald Trump\u2019s administration and traditional allies like Europe, with Trump threatening to impose tariffs on some European partners to press a bid to acquire Greenland before announcing a deal that lowered the temperature.<\/p>\n
As allies confront what some see as a hostile attitude from the U.S., they will almost certainly be unhappy to see that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s department will provide \u201ccredible options to guarantee U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain,\u201d especially Greenland and the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n
Following a tiff this week at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, with\u00a0Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the strategy at once urges cooperation with Canada and other neighbors while still issuing a stark warning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will engage in good faith with our neighbors, from Canada to our partners in Central and South America, but we will ensure that they respect and do their part to defend our shared interests,\u201d the document says. \u201cAnd where they do not, we will stand ready to take focused, decisive action that concretely advances U.S. interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much like the White House\u2019s\u00a0National 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 prioritizes U.S. interests. 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
The strategy simultaneously courts help from partners in America\u2019s backyard, while warning them that the U.S. 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. 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
Danish officials, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, say formal negotiations have yet to begin.<\/p>\n
Trump previously suggested that the U.S. should potentially consider\u00a0retaking control of the Panama Canal\u00a0and\u00a0accused Panama of ceding influence to China. Asked this week if the U.S. reclaiming the canal was still on the table, Trump demurred.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to tell you that,\u201d the president responded. \u201cSort of, I must say, sort of. That\u2019s sort of on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Pentagon also touted the operation that ousted\u00a0Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u00a0earlier this month, saying \u201call narco-terrorists should take note.\u201d<\/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 U.S. 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
The strategy, meanwhile, makes no mention of or guarantee to Taiwan, 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
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.\u201d<\/p>\n
It says the Pentagon will play a key role in NATO \u201ceven as we calibrate U.S. force posture and activities in the European theater\u201d to focus on priorities closer to home.<\/p>\n
The U.S.\u00a0already has confirmed\u00a0that it will reduce its\u00a0troop presence\u00a0on NATO\u2019s borders with Ukraine, with allies\u00a0expressing concern\u00a0that the Trump administration might drastically cut their numbers and leave a security vacuum as European countries confront an increasingly aggressive Russia.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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