New US National Security Strategy: Washington Shifts Focus to Power, China and Autonomous Europe

US President Donald Trump signed the updated National Security Strategy, which was published on the White House website on December 5, 2025.

The document showcases Washington’s sharp shift to a model of hard sovereignty, economic nationalism, and power realism.

The strategy explicitly rejects the post-Cold War globalist approach with supranational institutions as one that, in the White House’s view, undermined American industry and the middle class.

The document enshrines a US foreign policy course based on military superiority and the principle of Peace Through Strength as the basis for strategic deterrence.

Among the key goals are absolute border control, the world’s most powerful armed forces, the development of the Golden Dome missile defense system, reindustrialization, and energy dominance.

The priorities also include technological leadership in AI, quantum and biotechnology, and the restoration of America’s ‘civilizational and cultural strength.’

For NATO allies, the defense spending requirement is set at 5% of GDP, otherwise, American military support may be reduced.

As for Europe, the strategy sets out a course for its greater autonomy and the US desire for a “swift end to the war in Ukraine” to stabilize the continent.

Washington plans to diplomatically facilitate the restoration of contacts between the EU and Russia to achieve ‘strategic stability’ and reduce the risk of direct confrontation.

The document views Ukraine as an element of broader European-Russian stabilization, not as a separate security axis.

NATO, according to the strategy, should not expand uncontrollably and accept new members without strategic consensus.

The United States views the Western Hemisphere as its own zone of dominance, with an emphasis on migration control, energy, and the economy based on the principles of the Monroe Doctrine.

In the Indo-Pacific region, China is identified as the main systemic rival, and deterrence around Taiwan is called a key military and political task.

In general, the new strategy reflects the US transition to a model of civilizational realism, where peace is achieved through a balance of power, and allies pay for their own security.

The US recently issued a separate document aimed at strengthening discipline and professionalism in the US Defense Forces.