New Pentagon defense strategy prioritizes homeland, scales back support for allies
The Pentagon released a priority-shifting National Defense Strategy (NDS) late Friday that said the U.S. military will prioritize protecting the homeland while providing “more limited” support to allies in Europe and elsewhere.
The 34-page document, the first since 2022, criticized partners from Europe to Asia for relying on previous U.S. administrations to subsidize their defense. It called for “a sharp shift — in approach, focus, and tone.”
“For too long, the U.S. Government neglected — even rejected — putting Americans and their concrete interests first,” read the opening sentence.
“As US forces focus on homeland defense and the Indo-Pacific, our allies and partners elsewhere will take primary responsibility for their own defense with critical but more limited support from American forces,” the strategy said.
The document also urges “a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations” with China, saying the goal “is not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them.”
The defense strategy also indicates that “Russia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO’s eastern members for the foreseeable future,” adding 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.
