America
New US national security strategy: The end of globalization and the return of the Monroe Doctrine
The Donald Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy (NSS), the publication of which had been delayed for a long time, has been released.
The 33-page document shapes the security perspective of the US at both global and national levels.
In writing the foreword for NSS 2025, Trump claims that they have turned the US back from “destruction and disaster” since the first day of his second presidential term. He asserts that after “four years of weakness, extremism, and deadly failures,” his administration has restored the power of the US at home and abroad at “historic speed” and brought “peace and stability” to the world.
Stating that “No country, region, issue, or cause—no matter how worthy—can be the focus of American strategy,” NSS 2025 points out that the purpose of foreign policy is the “protection of fundamental national interests.”
Argued that American strategies formed since the end of the Cold War have been insufficient, the new NSS criticizes relevant strategies for consisting merely of “a list of aspirations or desired end states.”
Suggesting that previous strategies failed to “clearly define what the US wanted,” NSS 2025 believes that instead, expressions consisting of “vague clichés” were used, and often, “what the US should want” was evaluated incorrectly.
NSS 2025 states the following:
“Since the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American dominance over the entire world was in our country’s best interest. However, the affairs of other countries concern us only insofar as their activities directly threaten our interests.”
Viewing the “nation-building” processes of the US, particularly in the Middle East, critically, NSS 2025 says, “Our elites vastly miscalculated the willingness of the American people to forever bear global burdens that they viewed as having no connection to national interests.”
The strategy document argues that previous foreign policymakers overestimated the ability of the US to simultaneously fund a massive military, diplomatic, intelligence, and foreign aid complex alongside a massive social welfare, regulatory, and administrative state. It asserts that they made “extremely wrong and destructive bets” on globalization and free trade, thereby hollowing out “the middle class and industrial base upon which the American economy and military superiority depend.”
Directing criticisms at international institutions as well as the US bearing the burden of its “allies,” NSS 2025 says the following:
“They allowed allies and partners to offload defense costs onto the American people and sometimes drag us into conflicts and disputes that were central to their interests but insignificant or irrelevant to ours. And they tethered American policy to a network of international institutions, some driven by open anti-Americanism, and most by a transnational approach explicitly aiming to eliminate individual state sovereignty. In short, our elites not only pursued a fundamentally unwanted and impossible goal, but in doing so, they also undermined the means necessary to achieve that goal—namely, the character of our nation, which forms the foundation of our power, wealth, and morality.”
Describing Trump’s policies as a “necessary correction,” the new NSS argues that the US primarily wants “the government to ensure the existence and security of the US as an independent, sovereign republic that secures the God-given natural rights of its citizens and prioritizes their welfare and interests.”
Emphasizing the desire to protect the country from “military attacks and hostile foreign influences such as espionage, predatory trade practices, drug and human trafficking, destructive propaganda and influence operations, cultural destruction, or other threats to our nation,” NSS 2025 counts full control over borders, the immigration system, and transportation networks where people enter the US “legally and illegally” among its fundamental goals.
Placing special emphasis on military capacity, the NSS writes, “To protect the American people, America’s assets abroad, and its allies, we want to possess the world’s most robust, reliable, and modern nuclear deterrence system and next-generation missile defense systems, including a Golden Dome for the American homeland.”
Acknowledging that the US industrial base is also critical for its global-military role, NSS 2025 announces that it will prioritize industrial policies:
“American national power depends on a strong industrial sector capable of meeting production demands in peacetime and wartime. This requires not only direct defense industry production capacity but also defense-related production capacity. Developing American industrial power must become the highest priority of national economic policy.”
Going for a “correction” regarding American “soft power” as well, NSS 2025 declares that while displaying the soft power of the US, they will respect the different religions, cultures, and governance systems of other countries “without feeling regret about the country’s past and present.”
The document states, “‘Soft power’ that serves America’s true national interests can only be effective when we believe in our country’s innate greatness and honesty.”
In this context, listing its expectations from the world, the American administration declares with an overt reference to the Monroe Doctrine that it will not allow a breach in US hegemony in the “Western Hemisphere”:
“We want to ensure the Western Hemisphere is a reasonably stable and well-governed region to prevent and deter mass migration to the United States; we want a Hemisphere where governments cooperate with us against narco-terrorists, cartels, and other international criminal organizations; we want a Hemisphere that is not subject to hostile foreign attacks or the seizure of significant assets and that supports critical supply chains; and we want to maintain our access to key strategic locations. In other words, we will add a ‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine and enforce it.”
The document openly declares that after “years of neglect,” the US will reinstate and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American superiority in the “Western Hemisphere” and to “protect the homeland and access to key geographical areas in the region.”
NSS 2025 states, “We will prevent adversaries outside the Hemisphere from positioning forces or other threatening capabilities in our hemisphere or from owning or controlling assets of vital strategic importance”:
“Our goals for the Western Hemisphere can be summarized as ‘Enlist and Expand.’ We will enlist our established friends in the hemisphere to control migration, stop the flow of drugs, and strengthen stability and security on land and at sea. While increasing our country’s appeal as the hemisphere’s preferred economic and security partner, we will expand by developing and strengthening new partners.”
In this context, it is stated that the global military presence of the US will also be re-evaluated with the Western Hemisphere in mind.
Stopping and reversing the damage caused by “foreign actors” to the American economy, while also keeping the Indo-Pacific region “free and open,” protecting freedom of navigation on all major sea lanes, and “maintaining secure and reliable supply chains and access to critical materials” are also among the priorities of NSS 2025.
Stating that they want to support allies in “protecting Europe’s freedom and security” while Europe restores “self-confidence” in its own civilization and its “Western identity,” NSS 2025 appears to continue the criticism of “endless wars” that began during the Barack Obama era by saying, “We want to prevent a hostile power from dominating the Middle East, its oil and natural gas resources, and the chokepoints through which they pass, and at the same time prevent the ‘endless wars’ that drag us into a quagmire in that region at great cost.”
Noting that they want to ensure US technology and US standards lead the world forward, particularly in the fields of artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing, the new strategy asserts that all these are “fundamental and vital national interests” of the US and states, “While we have other interests, these are the interests we must focus on above all else, and which will be to our detriment if we ignore or neglect them”:
“President Trump’s foreign policy is pragmatic without being ‘pragmatist,’ realistic without being ‘realist,’ principled without being ‘idealist,’ strong without being ‘hawkish,’ and measured without being ‘dovish.’ It is not based on traditional political ideology. It focuses above all on what works for America, in two words: ‘America First.’”
Stopping regional conflicts before they turn into “global wars dragging in entire continents” is seen as a priority of this administration.
Stating, “A world on fire, where wars reach our shores, is bad for American interests,” NSS 2025 claims that Trump uses “unconventional diplomacy,” “America’s military power,” and “economic leverage” to “surgically extinguish” the sparks of violent wars caused by divisions between nuclear-armed countries and “centuries-old hatred.”
Continuing to point to the magnitude of the US military power globally and the reserve currency role of the dollar, the document underscores that, in addition to these, they will revitalize the “culture of competence” and competitiveness by reversing diversity policies known as “DEI.”
Making a “middle class” emphasis as well, the document points specifically to energy and industrialization:
“To support growth and innovation, strengthen and rebuild the middle class, unleashing our massive energy production capacity as a strategic priority;
To re-industrialize our economy to further support the middle class and control our own supply chains and production capacity.”
In this context, the document values the role of tax cuts and deregulation and dreams of making the US “the most suitable place to do business and invest capital.”
In this regard, it is emphasized that the Trump administration’s foreign policy will be guided by the following principles:
- Focused Definition of National Interests
- Peace Through Strength
- Inclination Toward Non-Intervention
- Flexible Realism
- Primacy of Nations
- Sovereignty and Respect
- Balance of Power
- Supporting the American Worker
- Justice
- Competence and Merit
NSS 2025 states in this context that the era of mass migration has ended; fundamental rights and freedoms will be defended; burdens will be both shared and differentiated; rearrangements will be made through peace; and importance will be given to economic security through balanced trade, industrialization, and securing access to critical supply chains.
American billionaire Elon Musk lost $29 billion following the announcement of early results from the US congressional midterm elections.
Alphaville, an analysis blog operated by the Financial Times, pointed to the night of 3 November into 4 November, when the US congressional midterms were held, describing Musk as “the real loser of a night that had a lot of losers”.
According to initial data, the Democratic Party gained the upper hand in the elections, taking control of both chambers of Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate.
As reported by Bloomberg, shares in SpaceX, one of the companies forming the core of Musk’s wealth, fell 6.9% in pre-market trading, while Tesla shares dropped 5%.
The agency noted that the Democratic victory could deal a double blow to investors in Tesla and SpaceX.
Tesla shares had climbed 34% since late July, buoyed by interest in artificial intelligence products and the possibility of a merger with SpaceX.
Under current conditions, however, investors fear tighter regulatory oversight in the artificial intelligence sector.
It is also noted that the Democratic victory could complicate a potential merger between the two companies.
The Financial Times reported that while Democrats lack the authority to block a merger deal outright, they could subject the transaction to tighter, more detailed scrutiny.
Bloomberg pointed out that few major corporate executives have forged ties with US President Donald Trump and the Republican MAGA movement as close as Musk’s.
According to data reported by The Washington Post, Musk spent $446 million backing Republican candidates ahead of the midterms to help the party preserve its majority in Congress.
The billionaire also urged his 240 million followers on the social media platform X not to vote for Democrats.
The newspaper wrote that a significant portion of those funds went to the Senate race in Texas, the state where Musk resides.
In recent years, Musk also relocated his core assets and business operations to the state; both Tesla and SpaceX are currently headquartered in Texas.
Shares in Musk’s companies have previously experienced volatility in response to political developments.
Following Trump’s re-election as president in 2024, Tesla shares surged more than 90% in just over a month, but those gains were gradually erased amid deteriorating relations between the billionaire and the president, as well as investor fatigue surrounding his activities at DOGE.
Nevertheless, the latest market decline is seen as potentially temporary; despite their concerns, investors continue to avoid underestimating Musk’s influence.
Meanwhile, according to early results from the 3 November midterms, the Democratic Party regained control of both houses of the US Congress.
Projections shared by NBC News indicate that Democrats could win 258 seats in the 435-member House of Representatives, where 218 seats are required for a majority.
In the Senate, Democrats have secured 54 seats compared to 44 for the Republicans.
The outcomes of two Senate races, in Mississippi and Alaska, have not yet been finalized.
The scale of the Democratic sweep was characterized across US media as a “blue tsunami”. The party won Senate races in seven states previously held by Republicans.
Within that tally, a Democrat secured Senate representation in Kansas for the first time in 94 years, while in Texas the party won both the Senate and gubernatorial races for the first time in decades.
A redistricting push initiated by Republicans ahead of the 2026 US midterm elections to protect their House seats and minimize potential losses failed to deliver the intended outcome at the ballot box.
According to projections by Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) cited by The Hill newspaper, Republicans won only two of the 15 seats they targeted through this process, while the new maps in several states left previously safe Republican lawmakers facing the risk of defeat.
Democrats, meanwhile, secured a sweeping nationwide victory by gaining dozens of seats in the House of Representatives.
Fearing a voter backlash against President Donald Trump’s policies, Republicans altered congressional maps across multiple states.
Democratic counter-efforts remained limited before election day to a single intentional redistricting measure in California.
Texas became the first state to redraw its boundaries in 2025, where Republicans aimed to flip at least five Democratic seats.
However, the party prevailed in only one of those redrawn districts. In the 32nd District, Republican Jace Yarbrough defeated Democrat Dan Barrios by roughly three points, according to DDHQ data. Trump had carried the district by approximately 20 points in 2024.
In the 9th District, which Trump won two years earlier by the same margin, Democrat Leticia Gutierrez established a comfortable lead over Republican Alex Mealer, leading by 15 points with votes still being tallied.
The Republican strategy in Texas relied on the prospect that Latino voters who backed Trump in 2024 would turn toward the party again.
The failure of that support to materialize at the ballot box contributed to the party’s defeat across three South Texas congressional districts.
In the Rio Grande Valley, Vicente Gonzalez in the 34th District and Henry Cuellar in the 28th District comfortably retained their seats, both districts having been carried by Trump by more than 10 points in the previous election.
In the state’s 35th District race, Democrat Johnny Garcia defeated Republican Carlos De La Cruz.
De La Cruz’s sister, Republican Representative Monica De La Cruz, also lost her election, trailing Democrat Bobby Pulido in the unredrawn 15th District.
Republicans also lost the open 23rd District, where Democrat Katy Padilla Stout will replace Republican Tony Gonzales.
Across Texas, Democrats offset map-driven setbacks with gains in other districts, concluding election night with a net gain of seats.
In Florida, Republicans also reworked congressional boundaries targeting four Democratic-held seats, but as of Wednesday afternoon data, they failed to win any of the four districts.
According to DDHQ projections, Democrat Kathy Castor held her seat in the 14th District by defeating Republican Mike Beltran by more than five points.
Democrat Pia Dandiya defeated Republican Casey Askar by roughly four points in the 22nd District, while in the 25th District, Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz finished roughly five points ahead of Republican Scott Singer.
In the 9th District, where a winner has yet to be declared, Democratic Representative Darren Soto leads Republican Dan Green by half a percentage point with nearly all ballots counted.
In Ohio, Republicans were required by law to redraw congressional boundaries. During the process, the 9th District, contested by Democratic Representative Marcy Kaptur, was made more favourable to Republicans, while Greg Landsman’s 1st District was transformed into a district won by Trump.
Nevertheless, Kaptur retained her seat by 5.5 points and Landsman by 11.5 points over their rivals. Republicans suffered the losses in Ohio, conceding the 7th, 10th, and 15th congressional districts according to DDHQ projections.
In North Carolina, where Republicans already held a favourable map, they shifted boundaries further to unseat Democrat Don Davis in the 1st District.
Davis secured election by approximately three points in a district Trump won by roughly 12 points in 2024. The new map produced a heavy defeat for Republicans in the state.
According to DDHQ projections, Democrats won the 6th, 9th, 11th, 13th, and 14th districts. Democrats also remain within two points in the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 8th, and 10th districts, where outcomes remained uncalled as of Wednesday afternoon.
Among those defeated was Representative Richard Hudson, chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of House Republicans. Hudson lost to Democrat Richard Ojeda by two points.
Following the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais ruling earlier this year, which weakened a section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Republicans in Alabama and Louisiana redrew maps to eliminate one majority-Black district in each state.
In Alabama, Democratic Representative Shomari Figures defended his seat in the 2nd District, leading his Republican opponent by about 7.5 points.
In Louisiana, which used a blanket primary for its House races this year, Democrat Chauna Banks and Republican Blake Miguez each secured roughly 19% of the vote, advancing to the general election scheduled for 12 December.
In California, voters approved Proposition 50 in 2025 to update boundaries and deliver five House seats to Democrats in direct response to the moves in Texas.
According to DDHQ data, Democrats swept all five redrawn districts. In the 1st District, Democrat Mike McGuire led incumbent Republican Representative James Gallagher by 14 points.
Democratic Representative Ami Bera, moving from the 6th District, defeated Republican Robb Tucker in the 3rd District by the same margin.
In the 22nd District, previously carried by Trump and targeted by Democrats for a flip, Randy Villegas ousted Republican David Valadao, opening a 33-point lead as of Wednesday afternoon.
In the 41st District, Democrat Linda Sánchez, the incumbent from the 39th District, finished roughly 30 points ahead of Republican Mitch Clemmons.
In the 42nd District, Democrat Marni von Wilpert won the race against Republican Jim Desmond by 19 points.
In Utah, congressional boundaries were established by a court ruling after a judge determined that the existing map dividing Salt Lake City into four Republican districts breached the state’s anti-gerrymandering statute.
The judge ordered the creation of a new district that Democrats could win. Former Democratic Representative Ben McAdams, who represented the 1st District between 2019 and 2021, won the open seat by defeating Republican Riley Owen with a 47-point margin.
US Vice President Vance blamed the ongoing war with Iran for the Republican Party’s heavy midterm defeat, pushing aside other issues, including the Trump administration’s immigration policies, that were viewed as costing party candidates votes.
Posting on his social media account, Vance said, “The war is the reason we lost. The President himself said this last night.”
Continuing his statement, Vance remarked: “If you want to argue that it was worth it, that it was worth losing the Senate for the next 6 years, make that argument. Argue that it was a price worth paying. Agree or disagree, that is at least honest. But everyone knows why we lost. An honest conversation about where we go from here has to start right there.”
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., soon backed Vance’s assessment, writing above the original post on the X platform, “Every single word of this is 100% true.”
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, had previously acknowledged that the Iran war was partly responsible for the Republicans’ overall midterm losses, though he remained defiant and said he would make the same decision again.
In an election-night interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said the Middle East conflict, now entering its eighth month, was “part of it.”
Asked later on Tuesday about Vance’s post and whether he had been given advance notice, Trump said: “I know how he feels about the Iran war. I think it was fine. I thought it was good.”
Speaking to reporters in the White House ballroom, where construction is under way, Trump said he knew the war would affect the vote, adding, “Affect it or not, Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and they never will have a nuclear weapon.”
Regarding when the war would end, Trump said, “It will end when I want it to end, but it has to be done right.”
Government officials sought to avoid blame for a defeat of a scale neither party had faced in a midterm election in the last 50 years. The election results are widely viewed as a referendum on Trump’s presidency.
Having caused sharp rises in petrol and diesel prices in the US and globally since it began in late February, the war fuelled voter backlash following Trump’s 2024 campaign pledges to end foreign wars and lower prices.
A long-time sceptic of US overseas military interventions, Vance sought to distance himself from the unpopular war ahead of a potential 2028 presidential bid.
In the early stages of the war, as Trump was weighing potential strike options against Tehran, Vance was reported to have been sceptical of and opposed to the move.
After the war began, Vance publicly defended “Operation Epic Fury”, but in recent months he took care to keep his distance from the issue.
In his post on X on Tuesday, Vance claimed that despite his party’s heavy losses, data analysts on their side showed that turnout before the election was merely acceptable in some states and exceptional in others, and in no state did it fall to catastrophic levels.
Reporting a genuine sense of optimism within their team, Vance argued that the main problem was not voter turnout.
Vance noted that many voters who backed Trump and him in the 2024 election turned to Democrats in 2026 due to anger over the Iran war, the cost of living, inflation, a lack of focus on “America First”, and current US ties with Israel.
Republican lawmakers pointed directly to Trump, arguing that the war, the administration’s tariff policies, excessive focus on personal projects such as the White House ballroom, and the backing of weak candidates in the midterms destroyed the party’s chances of retaining control of Congress.
According to projections by Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ), Republicans lost at least 7 Senate seats in this outcome.
As of Wednesday morning, two Senate races, in Mississippi and Alaska, had not yet been formally called.
DDHQ data showed that Republicans also lost 30 seats in the House of Representatives, with more than 20 districts still undecided.
Addressing the forthcoming internal party dynamics, Vance admitted: “There’s going to be a lot of recrimination and debate about what happened and why. One pollster I really respect told me our economic messaging down the stretch wasn’t sharp enough. I’m sure that’s true.”
Claiming that over the next few months establishment politicians would try to distract from the truth by arguing “amnesty is the cure for what ails us”, Vance added: “I’m open to changing enforcement, such as focusing more on businesses that employ illegal labour. But anyone calling for amnesty is lying to you.”
Stating that he retained hope for the US despite the major losses, Vance concluded:
“To those who are angry and want to say ‘I told you so’: you’re right, you did. Channel that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To those who are just mad at the outcome: you have every right to be. Let’s take that anger and get back to work saving our country.”
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