In a significant revelation, the Pentagon unveiled a new National Defense Strategy late on Friday, marking a notable shift in priorities under the Trump administration. This strategy places a reinforced emphasis on asserting dominance within the Western Hemisphere, moving away from the longstanding focus on countering China. At the heart of this change is a strong message to U.S. allies, urging them to take greater responsibility for their own security.

Spanning 34 pages, the document stands out for its political undertones, especially as a military blueprint. It delivers a candid critique of allies across Europe and Asia, accusing previous U.S. administrations of enabling a dependency on American defense subsidies. The strategy calls for a “sharp shift — in approach, focus, and tone,” signaling that allies should shoulder more of the defense burden against threats from nations like Russia and North Korea.

The document opens with a stark statement: “For too long, the U.S. Government neglected — even rejected — putting Americans and their concrete interests first.” This sets the tone for the administration’s intention to prioritize American interests more aggressively.

The release of this strategy capped a tumultuous week of interactions between President Donald Trump’s administration and traditional allies in Europe. Tensions escalated with Trump’s threats of imposing tariffs on European partners, alongside a controversial proposal to purchase Greenland. However, the announcement of a new agreement helped ease some of these diplomatic strains.

As the U.S. adopts a more assertive stance, allies may find themselves grappling with this perceived shift in American foreign policy. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s department is tasked with ensuring “credible options to guarantee U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain,” notably Greenland and the Panama Canal, reinforcing America’s strategic interests in these vital regions.

Following a tiff this week at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, the strategy at once urges cooperation with Canada and other neighbors while still issuing a stark warning.

“We 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,” the document says. “And where they do not, we will stand ready to take focused, decisive action that concretely advances U.S. interests.”

Much like the White House’s National Security Strategy that preceded it, the defense blueprint reinforces Trump’s “America First” 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’s “pacing challenge.”

Western Hemisphere

The strategy simultaneously courts help from partners in America’s backyard, while warning them that the U.S. will “actively and fearlessly defend America’s interests throughout the Western Hemisphere.”

It specifically points to access to the Panama Canal and Greenland. It comes just days after Trump said he reached a “framework of a future deal” on Arctic security with NATO leader Mark Rutte that would offer the U.S. “total access” to Greenland, a territory of NATO ally Denmark.

Danish officials, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, say formal negotiations have yet to begin.

Trump previously suggested that the U.S. should potentially consider retaking control of the Panama Canal and accused Panama of ceding influence to China. Asked this week if the U.S. reclaiming the canal was still on the table, Trump demurred.

“I don’t want to tell you that,” the president responded. “Sort of, I must say, sort of. That’s sort of on the table.”

The Pentagon also touted the operation that ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro earlier this month, saying “all narco-terrorists should take note.”

China and the greater Asia-Pacific region

The new policy document views China — which the Biden administration saw as a top adversary — as a settled force in the Indo-Pacific region that only needs to be deterred from dominating the U.S. or its allies.

The goal “is not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them,” the document says. It later adds, “This does not require regime change or some other existential struggle.”

“President Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China,” it says, which follows efforts to climb down from a trade war sparked by the administration’s sky-high tariffs. It says it will “open a wider range of military-to-military communications” with China’s army.

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.

By contrast, the Biden administration’s 2022 strategy said the U.S. would “support Taiwan’s asymmetric self-defense.”

In another example of offloading regional security to allies, the document says, “South Korea is capable of taking primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with critical but more limited U.S. support.”

Europe

While saying that “Russia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO’s eastern members for the foreseeable future,” the defense strategy asserts that NATO allies are much more powerful and so are “strongly positioned to take primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense.”

It says the Pentagon will play a key role in NATO “even as we calibrate U.S. force posture and activities in the European theater” to focus on priorities closer to home.

The U.S. already has confirmed that it will reduce its troop presence on NATO’s 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.