According to the Department of Defense’s 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS), the United States no longer considers China a top security priority. President Donald Trump’s administration is shifting its focus to the Western Hemisphere, reversing a decade of foreign policy that saw China as the greatest threat to U.S. national security and economic interests.
The strategy document states that U.S. allies and partners such as South Korea “must share their fair share of the burden of collective defense.” This is consistent with President Trump’s rhetoric urging US allies in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen and strengthen their defense capabilities to counter security threats from Russia and North Korea.
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The 34-page Pentagon blueprint released late Friday comes weeks after the release of President Trump’s National Security Strategy, which aims to “restore American primacy in the Western Hemisphere” by reinforcing the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century U.S. policy against European colonization and interference in the Americas.
So what’s new in NDS, and how will it impact America’s allies in the Asia-Pacific region?
What does Trump’s national defense strategy include?
The major change in the NDS is a change in the approach of the U.S. Department of Defense, which considers the security of the “homeland and the Western Hemisphere” as its primary concern.
The document noted that the U.S. military will not act on a policy of containment, but rather on four core priorities: defending the homeland, weaning allies around the world from dependence on U.S. forces, strengthening the defense industrial base, and deterring China.
The Pentagon document said relations with China will now be approached through “strength, not confrontation.”
“It is neither our duty nor our national interest to act independently everywhere, nor will it make up for security deficiencies caused by the irresponsible choices of allied leaders themselves,” the document said.
Instead, the United States said it would prioritize “threats to the interests of the American people.”
The Pentagon announced it would provide “military and commercial access” to key locations such as Greenland and build the President’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system for North America.
President Trump’s threat to take over Greenland has disrupted transatlantic relations, while the United States’ abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on January 3 shocked the world and raised questions about the weakening of international law. President Trump has justified U.S. actions in Venezuela as necessary to ensure U.S. national security and economic interests.
The unclassified version of the NDS, released every four years, is unusually filled with photos of the secretary of defense and the president and has repeatedly targeted former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Under the Biden administration, the Pentagon has said “revisionist powers” such as China and Russia are a “central challenge” to U.S. security.
The NDS follows the release of the National Security Strategy in December, which argues that Europe faces civilizational collapse and does not consider Russia a threat to U.S. interests.
The NDS noted that Germany’s economy is small compared to Russia’s, and argued that Washington’s NATO allies are therefore “in a strong position to assume primary responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense, with significant but more limited U.S. support.”
The strategic blueprint states that this includes taking the lead in supporting Ukraine’s defence.
The document also addressed the issue of Iran, reiterating the US position that Iran cannot develop nuclear weapons. He also described Israel as a “model ally.” “And we now have an opportunity to build on President Trump’s historic efforts to ensure peace in the Middle East, further empowering China to protect itself and advance our common interests.”
What is the impact on US allies?
First, Europe is being pushed further down on the US government’s priority list and told to take more responsibility for its own defense. Many NATO allies had already offered to increase defense spending and provide security to Ukraine against the Russian threat.
For South Korea and Japan, the Pentagon recognized the “direct military threat” posed by North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un, and noted that North Korea’s “nuclear forces are increasingly likely to threaten the U.S. mainland.”
Approximately 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea as part of a defense treaty to thwart the military threat from North Korea. Under pressure from President Trump to increase defense costs, the South Korean government increased this year’s defense budget by 7.5%.
The NDS noted that South Korea “could take primary responsibility for deterring North Korea with significant but more limited U.S. support,” which could lead to reductions in U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula. “This shift in the balance of responsibility is consistent with the United States’ interest in updating the posture of the United States military on the Korean Peninsula,” the document said.
Harsh Pant, a New Delhi-based geopolitical analyst, said the defense strategy is consistent with the Trump administration’s push to put allies in control of their own security.
“The Trump administration has argued that the relationship we currently see in terms of security cooperation with allies is one in which allies bear a heavier burden and have to pay their share,” Pant told Al Jazeera.
“U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific need to be more aware of their role in shaping the regional security architecture. The U.S. is there and will continue to have an overarching presence, but it won’t foot the bill as it has in the past,” said Pant, deputy director of the Observer Research Foundation think tank.
North Korea regularly criticizes the presence of US forces in South Korea and joint military exercises, which its allies say are defensive, but North Korea calls them dry runs for invasion.
Seoul’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday that US forces based in the country are the “core” of the alliance, adding: “We will continue to work closely with the US and develop the alliance in that direction.”
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said, “It is inconceivable that South Korea, which spends 1.4 times as much gross domestic product on national defense as North Korea and has the world’s fifth-largest military, cannot defend itself.In an increasingly unstable international environment, independent national defense is the most fundamental principle.”
Lee made the comments after visiting China this month, aiming to improve relations with China, which is Seoul’s largest economic partner, largest export destination and major import source. The South Korean government wants to improve relations with the Chinese government, which exercises influence over North Korea and its leaders.
What about Taiwan?
When the last NDS was released in 2022 under the Biden administration, it stated that the most comprehensive and serious challenge to U.S. national security was China’s “high-handed and increasingly aggressive efforts to reshape the Indo-Pacific region and the international system to suit its interests and authoritarian preferences.” At the time, Washington said part of its strategy was China’s ambitions regarding Taiwan.
Four years ago, the Pentagon said it “supports Taiwan’s asymmetric self-defense commensurate with the evolving (China) threat and consistent with the One China Policy.”
China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and has threatened to occupy it by force if necessary. In his New Year’s address, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to achieve the “unification” of China and Taiwan, calling Beijing’s long-standing goal “unstoppable.” The Chinese military conducted war games in the Taiwan Strait that separates the two countries.
The Pentagon did not mention Taiwan by name in this year’s NDS.
“The security, freedom, and prosperity of the American people…are directly tied to America’s ability to trade and engage from a position of strength in the Indo-Pacific,” the document said, adding that the Pentagon will “maintain a favorable balance of military power” in the Indo-Pacific, the “world’s economic center of gravity,” to thwart the threat from China.
He said the United States does not seek to dominate, humiliate or strangle China, but rather to “ensure that China or anyone else does not control us or our allies.” Instead, the U.S. wants “a decent peace that is advantageous for Americans but also accepts and allows China to live under,” the blueprint said, adding that the U.S. will therefore deter China through “strength, not confrontation.”
“We will build a strong denial defense along the First Island Chain (FIC),” the NDS said, referring to the First Island Chain off the coast of East Asia. “We also encourage and enable our key allies and partners in the region to do more for our collective defense.”
Pant said it would be a mistake on China’s part to interpret this as “the United States moving away from its allies.” He added that “[President Trump’s foreign policy]is rooted in the United States’ desire for a stable balance of power in the Indo-Pacific, where China is not the dominant power.”
“So for China, if they interpret this as a weakening of the U.S. commitment to our allies, I think that would not really be consistent with the spirit of this defense strategy.”
