By Paul Dragu
The New American
January 30, 2026
The Pentagon just released its 2026 National Defense Strategy. The government is endorsing some degree of U.S. involvement or interest in every part of the world. The strategy, interestingly, frames the White House's meddlesome foreign policy as one that's aligned with President Donald Trump's purported "America First" agenda.
The Pentagon's goals, according to this document, are to defend the homeland, rule the Western Hemisphere, deter China while keeping Asian markets open to America, and keep perceived threats in their cage - all while helping allies become militarily stronger. The idea is that U.S.-led hegemony works better when allies are strong. The goal is nothing short of maintaining American supremacy in the world.
Boosting Weapons Production
The strategy also includes a big emphasis on boosting weapons production. "We must return to being the world's premier arsenal, one that can produce not only for ourselves but also for our allies and partners at scale, rapidly, and at the highest levels of quality," the document says. "To achieve this, we will reinvest in U.S. defense production, building out capacity; empowering innovators; adopting new advances in technology, like artificial intelligence (AI); and clearing away outdated policies, practices, regulations, and other obstacles to the type and scale of production [required] for the priorities before us."
The document begins by slamming past administrations for presiding over America's decline. The United States emerged from World War II in better economic and military position than any other country in the world, "but rather than husband and cultivate these hard-earned advantages, our nation's post-Cold War leadership and foreign policy establishment squandered them." Moreover:
Rather than protect and advance Americans' interests, they opened our borders, forgot the wisdom of the Monroe Doctrine, ceded influence in our hemisphere, and outsourced America's industry, including the defense industrial base... upon which our forces rely. They sent America's brave sons and daughters to fight war after rudderless war to topple regimes and nation-build halfway around the world, in doing so eroding our military's readiness and delaying modernization.
But now, America will no longer "seek to solve all the world's problems." No more squandering "our military advantages and the lives, goodwill, and resources of our people in grandiose nation-building projects" that uphold the rules-based international order. Gone are the days when America's leaders foolishly believed that "a threat to a person halfway around the world is the same as to an American."
It is tempting to read this as satire. Solving the world's problems appears to be exactly the foreign policy of the Trump White House. How else do you explain continued meddling in the Ukraine boondoggle ? Or bombing a Middle Eastern country that poses no threat to the homeland ? Or inciting a revolution in that same country?
The Western Hemisphere
The government plans to be in full control of America's neighborhood, the Western Hemisphere. That includes guaranteeing "U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain, especially the Panama Canal, [Gulf of Mexico], and Greenland." The part about the Panama Canal is especially legitimate, given that it was built by the United States only to be renounced in a very dubious manner. You can read more about this issue here.
The plan for Monroe Doctrine-esque control of the Western Hemisphere includes working with our neighbors in Canada and Latin America. It will be interesting to see how Canada feels about that, given the latest barbs Prime Minister Mark Carney exchanged with Trump at Davos.
There's a line in this section that explains U.S. actions in Venezuela and possibly hints at future similar actions: "We will stand ready to take focused, decisive action that concretely advances U.S. interests. This is the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, and America's military stands ready to enforce it with speed, power, and precision, as the world saw in Operation ABSOLUTE RESOLVE."
The closer-to-home strategy also includes secure borders (among the best-kept promises of the Trump administration) and combating hemispheric narcoterrorism.
Europe
The strategy also says America is done serving as Europe's bodyguard, which rings somewhat true.
In the past, U.S. allies were encouraged to "behave as dependents rather than partners, weakening our alliances and leaving us more vulnerable." Those days are over. No longer will the we "make up for allied security shortfalls from the leaders' own irresponsible choices," says the U.S. government. Instead, the U.S. military machine "will insist that allies and partners do their part and lend them a helping hand when they do step up." Europe needs to take "responsibility for its own conventional defense." That includes not just NATO members, but allies around the world stepping up and spending 5 percent of their GDP on defense.
This comes up over and over, the idea that it's time for friendly nations to start beefing up their militaries.
Russia
But anyone who hopes this recalibration includes the shuttering of NATO will be disappointed. The Department of Defense (referred to in the document as the "War Department") will continue "to play a vital role in NATO itself, even as we calibrate U.S. force posture and activities in the European theater." This will especially be important to countering the Russian threat.
The way the Pentagon sees it, "Russia will remain a persistent but manageable threat to NATO's eastern members for the foreseeable future." Among the reasons is because Russia has "the world's largest nuclear arsenal, which it continues to modernize and diversify, as well as undersea, space, and cyber capabilities that it could employ against the U.S. Homeland."
The Pentagon, however, also portrays Russia as too weak to pose a serious threat to Europe. "Moscow is in no position to make a bid for European hegemony," it says. "European NATO dwarfs Russia in economic scale, population, and, thus, latent military power." NATO is "substantially more powerful than Russia - it is not even close," the Pentagon rightly points out. And "Germany's economy alone dwarfs that of Russia," it adds.
This analysis contradicts a series of hyperbolic statements European leaders have made to suggest that Russia planned to roll into Europe once it was done struggling in Ukraine.
The section on Russia ends with the idea that Europe is capable of, and should be in charge of, its own security.
Middle East
Regarding Iran, the written strategy aligns with what we're seeing in real life. It summarizes the various beatings Iran has taken from America and Israel, while portraying the theocratic dictatorship as a threat. That threat includes "the possibility that they will try again to obtain a nuclear weapon."
The reason Iran, with its meager economic output and subpar military ability, is on America's radar, is because it "has the blood of Americans on its hands" and "remains intent on destroying our close ally Israel."
Going forward, the United States will continue to empower Israel. Moreover, America will help arm other countries in the area: "In the [Persian] Gulf, U.S. partners are increasingly willing and able to do more to defend themselves against Iran and its proxies, including by acquiring and fielding a variety of U.S. military systems."
China
As for China, the goal is to deter the dragon through strength as opposed to confrontation: "We will be strong but not unnecessarily confrontational."
The War Department will try to expand its military-to-military communications with the People's Liberation Army. They want "deconfliction" and "de-escalation" with Beijing, and to promote stability in the entire Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon intends to "communicate that vision and intent to Chinese authorities, while also demonstrating through our behavior our own sincere desire to achieve and sustain such a peaceful and prosperous future."
Deterring China will include putting up a strong "denial defense along the First Island Chain," while working with regional allies to build up a collective defense. This First Island Chain refers to the chain of islands running from Japan, through Taiwan, to the Philippines, and then extending to parts of Southeast Asia.
America already has a military presence in Japan and the Philippines. And although there is no similar presence in Taiwan, we sell them plenty of weapons.
The Pentagon justifies maintaining a presence in China's sphere of influence through an economic lens. It believes this region has "implications for our nation's vital interests," including being home to the "world's largest market area." The document says that "the Indo-Pacific will soon make up more than half of the global economy," and instability in that part of the world can affect America's "ability to trade and engage from a position of strength in the Indo-Pacific."
Maintaining the American Empire
Speaking of strength, the War Department makes clear that all this fostering of peace and cooperation will require lots - and lots - of weapons. Fortunately, the government is about to "supercharge" America's already behemoth war machine. The United States aims to continue being the No. 1 arms supplier in the world: "We will simultaneously leverage allied and partner production not just to meet our own requirements but also to incentivize them to increase defense spending and help them field additional forces as quickly as possible." Moreover, this effort will "require nothing short of a national mobilization - a call to industrial arms on par with similar revivals of the last century that ultimately powered our nation to victory in the world wars and the Cold War that followed."
It is clear that the Trump administration, like all previous modern ones, does not intend to dial back U.S. presence around the world. Their meddling in the affairs of the world may look a little different, but by maintaining "favorable balances of power in each of the world's key regions," the goal is really to maintain the American empire.
Meanwhile, back at home, infrastructure is crumbling, riots are raging, taxpayers are being pillaged through fraud schemes, and the debt keeps climbing.
This article was originally published on The New American.
Paul Dragu is a senior editor at The New American, award-winning reporter, host of The New American Daily, and writer of Defector: A True Story of Tyranny, Liberty and Purpose.
Paul Dragu is a senior editor at The New American, award-winning reporter, host of The New American Daily, and writer of Defector: A True Story of Tyranny, Liberty and Purpose.