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A new US national security strategy has called for “cultivating resistance” in Europe, warning that the continent is subverting democracy, blocking peace in Ukraine and facing “civilisational erasure” from high migration and falling birth rates.
The document blames European officials for thwarting US efforts to end the war in Ukraine, accusing governments of ignoring what it claims is a “large European majority” that wants peace.
The 33-page document underscores the radical reorientation of US foreign policy under President Donald Trump. It declares American dominance of the western hemisphere as the primary objective in an updated version of the Monroe Doctrine, which claimed the region as a US sphere of influence in 1823.
The strategy pushes China and Europe down the list of global priorities, and says the era of focusing on the Middle East is “thankfully over”. In the US’s previous national security strategy, authored by the Biden administration, China and Russia were considered the largest threats.
Its release on Friday comes as Trump makes a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine. The effort has sparked fears in European capitals that Washington is prepared to force Kyiv to make concessions on several of its long-standing red lines.
An “expeditious cessation of hostilities” is essential “to stabilise European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia”, according to the document.
The document calls for a “readjustment” of the country’s military presence to address urgent threats in “our Hemisphere” and away from regions “whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or years”.
The US’s largest deployment of warships is in the Caribbean, with over a dozen vessels and more than 14,000 troops. Washington has carried out at least 22 strikes against alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, killing at least 87 people, and is weighing attacks on Venezuelan soil.
It also highlights the ideological gulf that has opened up between Washington and its traditional allies, depicting the European continent as one where “economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure”.
In a direct challenge to the EU, it says its activities “undermine political liberty and sovereignty”. It adds that America should be “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”. It also lauds the growing political influence of Eurosceptic far-right parties, whose rise to power in EU capitals could threaten the bloc’s future.
“American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history,” it says.
“America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
The strategy carries strong echoes of a speech US vice-president JD Vance delivered to the Munich Security Forum in February, which stunned European allies for its adversarial tone and its claim that Europe faced a greater threat from its own democratic failings than from Russian aggression.
According to the wide-ranging document, the administration will pursue a policy of “burden-shifting” intended to make Europe “stand on its own feet and operate as a group of aligned sovereign nations”.
The strategy largely frames China as an economic challenge, saying Washington will “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China, prioritising reciprocity and fairness to restore American economic independence”.
But it adds that “this must be accompanied by a robust and ongoing focus on deterrence to prevent war in the Indo-Pacific”.
The US will “harden and strengthen our military presence in the Western Pacific”, it argues, but urges allies in the Indo-Pacific region to spend more on defence and to upgrade their military, saying America should not have to carry all the burden of ensuring peace and freedom of navigation.
Friday’s release of the national security strategy will be followed next year by the US defence posture review that will shift US military assets to meet new foreign policy priorities.
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