Major Turn in US Policy

 On December 5, 2025, the latest US National Security Strategy was presented.

Mohammed Amer

New US National Security Strategy: rethinking priorities and learning from past mistakes

The document acknowledges that US approaches to security have proved ineffective since the end of the Cold War. They have been reduced to a list of desired results and ideal scenarios but lack clearly defined goals. As noted in the preamble, previous strategies were restricted to vague formulations and often incorrectly defined what exactly should be achieved.

The new strategy, which is based on Trump’s “America First” principle, focuses on strengthening the country’s financial and military power. It is noteworthy that, unlike the strategies from Trump’s first term and the Biden administration, there is no mention of Russia being a threat to the United States.

Such a concentrated expression of a fundamental turn in US foreign policy, especially regarding Europe, knocked the wind out of the Western European leaders

The current US administration has set itself the task of restoring strategic stability with the Russian Federation. The document states that one of the key vectors of US policy should be to create conditions for stability in Europe and strategic stability with Russia. To achieve this goal, the United States seeks to resolve the Ukraine crisis, since the earliest possible end to the confrontation in Ukraine is a key interest of the United States.

The US administration’s objective is also to prevent conflict over Taiwan and maintain the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. Washington expresses a desire to restore the balance in economic relations with China, while simultaneously building up its own forces and restraining China in the Indo-Pacific region.

The document signed by Trump pays special attention to relations with Latin America, declaring this region a zone of its interests, echoing the Monroe Doctrine. The United States has already successfully reduced external influence in the Western Hemisphere and intends to expand these efforts. To do this, it is planned to leverage financial and technological tools to encourage countries to abandon foreign assistance, which is obviously a hint at countering the strengthening China.

A clear break from Western Europe

At the same time, the most controversial part of the document is devoted to relations with Western Europe, which openly criticizes these countries’ policies. It is claimed that the governments of Western European states ignore the will of their peoples, that the continent is threatened with civilizational destruction due to decades of economic decline and especially inadequate policies in the field of immigration, declining birth rates, suppression of freedom of speech and political opposition, as well as loss of national identity and self-confidence. “Should current trends continue, the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less. As such, it is far from obvious whether certain European countries will have economies and militaries strong enough to remain reliable allies.”

The document states that the Ukraine conflict has only increased Europe’s foreign dependency, especially that of Germany.

It cannot be said that the main provisions of this strategy were any revelation to most observers: since Trump’s arrival in the White House on January 20 this year, these ideas have been articulated in one form or another in the rhetoric of the US president and members of his team. But such a concentrated expression of a fundamental turn in US foreign policy, especially regarding Europe, knocked the wind out of the Western European leaders. The London-based Economist described this strategy as gloomy and inconsistent, and Bloomberg concluded that it was directed against the allies of the United States, not the enemies.

Although Western European leaders tried in various ways to soften Trump’s criticism by accepting his tariffs, promising new investments, and courting the American president in every possible way, this did not help them. Washington continues to put pressure on the continent’s leaders, underscoring that they should forget about the possibility of NATO expansion.

Growing disagreement between the USA and Western Europe

Moreover, US rhetoric on Western Europe has become tougher. At the end of November, the US authorities called on Europeans to relax legislation related to digital content, promising in return to somewhat reduce tariffs on steel. However, Europe not only rejected this proposal, but also defiantly issued a massive $140 million fine to Musk’s social network. Another irking factor was X’s advertising policy and its refusal to share user data with the EU.

Telegram creator Pavel Durov believes the real reasons for the attack on Musk’s social network are: “The EU sets unenforceable rules to punish technology companies that refuse to silently restrict freedom of speech. We saw the same thing in France during a baseless criminal investigation.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Europe had committed an attack on all American technology platforms and the people of the United States.

Elon Musk was even more scathing in his criticism, saying: “The EU should be abolished and sovereignty returned to individual countries, so that governments can better represent their people.”

US authorities clearly do not like European powers’ attempts to disrupt the planned political settlement of the conflict in Ukraine, and they also do not approve of the EU’s intention to steal frozen Russian assets.

Certain observers conclude that we are witnessing a serious rift between the United States and Western Europe, as Washington diligently removes the main European powers from the peace process in Ukraine; the discrepancies between the allies are becoming more and more obvious.

It is noteworthy that Moscow welcomed the newly unveiled US national security strategy, noting that the most important thing is to implement it consistently.

Mohammed Amer, Syrian publicist