Pentagon unveils new National Defense Strategy
Image: US Defense Dept.
On Friday, the Trump admin announced a new National Defense Strategy that lays out a new vision for how America plans to protect itself, manage global threats, and redefine its role among allies in the coming years.
First things first: The Pentagon’s National Defense Strategy, required by Congress to be published every four years, is the capstone strategic guidance for America’s military. It builds on the priorities laid out in President Trump’s recent National Security Strategy.
The Pentagon’s new 34-page plan includes four major topics:
- Defend the US homeland: The strategy aims to renew focus on domestic defense by securing US borders and defending America’s interests throughout the Western Hemisphere (including guaranteed access to Greenland and the Panama Canal).
- Deter China through strength, not confrontation: The plan calls for keeping a favorable balance of military power in the Indo-Pacific region, and negotiation with China from a position of strength. It also pledges to build a “strong denial defense” along the First Island Chain, which includes Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines.
- Supercharge the US defense industry: Trump is pitching a revival of America’s defense industry that involves reshoring weapons manufacturing, streamlining how defense projects get approved, and pouring funds into AI and other high-tech military systems.
- Increase military burden-sharing with allies: NATO’s eastern members are being asked to take the lead in deterring Russian aggression. Instead of the US acting as Europe’s shield, the strategy aims to push allies to modernize their own forces and reduce their reliance on Washington.
Europe is already shifting gears
Countries across the continent have begun building up their own defenses in recent years. Defense spending across Europe reached ~$560 billion in 2025, double what it was in 2014. France is expanding its missile and drone programs, Germany is rebooting its tank factories, and Poland and the Baltic states are rapidly modernizing their forces.
But replacing US capabilities is no small task. It would take a ~$1 trillion investment from Europe to replace America’s current contribution to NATO, per the International Institute for Strategic Studies. And even then, Europe would still fall short in key areas like stealth aircraft, long-range strike capabilities, and satellite intel.
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Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that the Pentagon’s new defense strategy alienates traditional US allies and partners rather than strengthening ties, while preparing the armed forces to fight the ghosts of the past rather than meet challenges of tomorrow.
- Others contend that America’s military needs to reinvent itself after a decades-long decline in the country’s ability to win a long war with a major power, and with China’s president ordering his military to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027.
- “Trump’s National Defense Strategy Means ‘America Alone’” –Ana Janaina Nelson, World Politics Review
- “Why the U.S. Military Needs to Reinvent Itself” –NY Times Editorial Board
- “Pentagon’s new defense strategy pulls forces abroad to focus on homeland” –Tara Coop, Washington Post
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that the risk-reward ratio of the president’s actions in Greenland, Venezuela, Gaza, and elsewhere remains to be seen, but America has the potential to reap the benefits if things go well and the US stays out of conflict with Russia and China.
- Others contend that the Pentagon should focus on fixing how the US military fields equipment amid new threats and ways of war, and should push its bureaucracy to move faster in buying everything from drones to missiles to ships.
- “Trump’s ‘Donroe Doctrine’ flaunts U.S. expansionism and intervention. But will it pay off long-term?” –Jeff Mordock, Washington Times
- “Trump and a New ‘Arsenal of Freedom’” –WSJ Editorial Board
- “Trump’s national defense strategy is unlike anything that’s come before it” –Meghann Myers, Defense One
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