(Washington) The American army intends to provide “more limited” support to Washington’s allies in Europe to prioritize internal security and deterrence vis-à-vis China, the Pentagon announced Friday in its new defense strategy.
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National Defense Strategy 2026 marks a departure from past Pentagon policy, both in its emphasis that U.S. allies must take more responsibility for their defense and in a more moderate tone toward America’s traditional enemies China and Russia.
“While American forces focus on defending their territory and the Indo-Pacific region, our allies and partners will assume responsibility for their own defense, with essential but more limited support from American forces,” reads the document, published at the end of a week of unprecedented crisis between Washington and its NATO allies over Greenland.
The previous National Defense Strategy, released under Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency, described China as Washington’s most significant challenge, and said Russia posed a “serious threat.”
But the new document advocates “respectful relations” with Beijing, without making any mention of Taiwan, an ally of the United States, which China claims as its territory, and describes the Russian threat as “persistent, but manageable”, thus affecting several NATO members.
Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump’s defense strategies emphasize the importance of defending homeland security, but their descriptions of existing threats differ significantly.
The Pentagon will “prioritize efforts to close our borders, repel all forms of invasion, and expel illegal aliens,” the 2026 document reads.
Joe Biden focused on China and Russia, affirming that they represented “more dangerous challenges to security and internal safety” than any terrorist threat.
National Defense Strategy 2026 also makes no mention of the dangers of climate change, which the Biden administration had identified as an “emerging threat.”
Monroe Doctrine
Like the National Security Strategy published by the White House at the beginning of December, the Pentagon places Latin America at the top of American priorities.
The Pentagon will “reestablish United States military dominance in the Americas.” We will use it to protect our homeland and our access to key areas in the region,” the document reads.
This is the “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” the roadmap states.
The American president had justified the operation to capture his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, by the need to restore the uncontested supremacy of the United States over the whole of the Americas, a signal which could inspire China and Russia.
He presented this nighttime operation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, as a bringing up to date of the Monroe Doctrine, more than a century ago, considering that Latin America is the preserve of the United States.
Since last September, the United States has carried out around thirty strikes against suspected traffickers’ boats, causing more than 110 deaths in the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The Trump administration has never provided any evidence that the targeted vessels were actually involved in any trafficking.
