U.S. National Defense Strategy

Key Chapter Title List

1. Introduction
2. The Security Environment
3. The Homeland and the Hemisphere
4. The People's Republic of China
5. Russia
6. Iran
7. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea
8. The Problem of Simultaneity and Its Impact on Alliance Burden-Sharing
9. Strategic Approach
10. Line of Effort 1: Defend the American Homeland
11. Line of Effort 2: Deter China from Strength, Not Confrontation
12. Line of Effort 3: Increase Burden-Sharing with U.S. Allies and Partners
13. Line of Effort 4: Revitalize the U.S. Defense Industrial Base
14. Conclusion

Document Overview

This document is a U.S. defense strategy paper outlining the strategic guidelines and core lines of effort developed by the U.S. Department of Defense (referred to in the text as the War Department) under the leadership of President Trump to address the current complex and severe international security environment. The document begins by stating that in early 2025, the United States faces one of the most dangerous security environments since its founding: uncontrolled borders at home, hostile actors growing stronger in the Western Hemisphere, and threatened access to key geographic nodes (such as the Panama Canal and Greenland); European allies free-riding on defense, rendering NATO unable to effectively deter or respond to Russia's invasion of Ukraine; in the Middle East, while Israel demonstrates strong self-defense capabilities, its actions were constrained by the previous administration. Simultaneously, China continues to enhance its military power in the Indo-Pacific, the world's largest and most dynamic market region, posing significant implications for U.S. security, freedom, and prosperity. The document argues that this situation is not inevitable but rather the result of failures by post-Cold War U.S. leadership and the foreign policy establishment to guard and cultivate existing advantages, coupled with misguided decisions on border security, industrial offshoring (including the defense industrial base), endless overseas interventions, and undermining alliances.

To reverse this situation, the core of this strategy is to promote peace through strength, following the flexible, pragmatic realist approach articulated by President Trump in the National Security Strategy. The document focuses the Department of Defense's primary mission on areas most critical to U.S. security, freedom, and prosperity, and accordingly outlines four core lines of effort. The first line of effort is to defend the American homeland. This includes securing borders and maritime approaches, defending the air domain through the American Gold Dome program and enhanced counter-unmanned aircraft systems capabilities, maintaining a strong and modern nuclear deterrent, improving cyber defenses, and pursuing capable and intent Islamic terrorists who can strike the homeland. Concurrently, this line emphasizes actively and fearlessly defending U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere, ensuring military and commercial access to key terrain like the Panama Canal, the Gulf of America, and Greenland, and providing the President with credible military options to strike narco-terrorists, articulated as the Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.

The second line of effort is to deter China from strength, not confrontation. The document states that President Trump seeks a stable peace, fair trade, and mutual respect with China and is willing to engage directly with President Xi Jinping. However, the Department of Defense's task is to ensure the U.S. negotiates from a position of strength. To this end, the Department will seek to establish broader military communication channels with the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to support strategic stability, conflict de-escalation, and tension reduction. Simultaneously, the document calls for a clear-eyed recognition of the speed, scale, and quality of China's military buildup. The goal is not to dominate or humiliate China but to prevent any nation, including China, from dominating the United States or its allies, essentially creating conditions for a balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. Specific measures include building a strong denial defense posture along the First Island Chain and urging and enabling key regional allies and partners to contribute more to collective defense, thereby strengthening deterrence by denial.

The third line of effort is to increase burden-sharing with U.S. allies and partners. The document emphasizes that the U.S. strategy is not isolationist but involves focused overseas engagement from an America First and common-sense perspective to advance specific, tangible U.S. interests. This means demanding allies take on greater responsibility for their own defense, becoming true partners rather than dependents, thereby strengthening the overall capability and resilience of alliances.

Overall, this strategic document reflects an adjustment in U.S. defense strategy towards homeland priority, deterrence through strength, and pragmatic alliances against the backdrop of the return of great power competition and concurrent risks of multi-regional conflicts. Its analysis is based on an assessment of a specific security environment and proposes corresponding defense priorities and resource allocation directions.