Beyond “Atlas”: A Critical Analysis of the 2025 U.S. National Security Strategy

Tuesday, 09. December 2025

Hamid Ali Mujahid

In a document that reads less like a bureaucratic white paper and more like a campaign manifesto elevated into doctrine, the newly released 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) closes the door on the post–Cold War era of expansive American interventionism. Signed by President Donald Trump nine months into his second term, the strategy discards what it derides as the “laundry lists of wishes” of previous administrations. Instead, it presents a stark, transactional worldview: “The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.”

At just 29 pages, the roadmap envisions an America that is “pragmatic without being ‚pragmatist’… and muscular without being ‚hawkish.’” Its vision is one of fortified borders, high tariffs, and an intentional withdrawal from global governance structures – replaced by a “Golden Dome” concept of homeland protection and a ruthless prioritization of national interest over values-based diplomacy.

What follows is a critical analysis of how the 2025 NSS reframes U.S. engagement across key global theaters – and what this strategic turn reveals about the future of American power.

1. The Western Hemisphere: The “Trump Corollary.”

Perhaps the most aggressive departure in the NSS is the formal articulation of what the document pointedly calls the “Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.” After decades of treating Latin America as a peripheral concern, the Administration elevates the hemisphere to a zone of existential priority – not for cooperative engagement, but for control, exclusion, and strategic denial.

The strategy introduces a tiered approach of “Enlist and Expand.” To enlist is to pressure designated “regional champions” to halt migration flows and confront transnational cartels. To expand is to block external influence, especially from China, by “denying non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or to own or control strategically vital assets.”

The tone is unapologetically combative. The NSS pledges to “make every effort to push out foreign companies” from the hemisphere, singling out China’s Belt and Road footprint. Migration is no longer cast as a humanitarian challenge but as a sovereignty violation, with the document declaring that “The Era of Mass Migration Is Over.” In effect, the strategy reframes the Western Hemisphere as a fortress to be secured rather than a neighborhood of partners to be cultivated.

2. Europe: A “Civilizational” Critique

Where the Western Hemisphere section reads like a mobilization order, the Europe section reads like an indictment. The NSS paints a dire picture of a continent facing what it calls the “stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” It breaks sharply with traditional diplomatic restraint by chastising allied governments for “regulatory suffocation,” demographic decline, and an abandonment of “Western identity.”

Policy demands are similarly provocative. NATO allies are instructed not only to meet the new “Hague Commitment” of dedicating 5 percent of GDP to defense, but also to abandon what the strategy derides as “disastrous ‘climate change’ and ‘Net Zero’ ideologies.” The implication is clear: Europe’s security burden is now Europe’s alone, and ideological alignment on climate or multilateralism no longer buys goodwill in Washington.

For Ukraine, the implications are decisive. The NSS signals the end of open-ended U.S. support, identifying a “core interest” in negotiating an “expeditious cessation of hostilities.” The war is reframed not as a moral stand but as a destabilizing drain on resources. The document also chastises European leaders who “trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition” – a pointed rebuke aimed at centrist governments confronting rising right-wing populist movements.

3. China and Asia: Economic Warfare Over Military Confrontation

The NSS casts the last thirty years of U.S. policy toward China as a catalogue of “mistaken American assumptions.” While it reaffirms a military commitment to the First Island Chain, the central battlefield is unmistakably economic. The strategy’s core objective is to “Win the Economic Future” by severing dependencies on Chinese supply chains, restricting Chinese access to advanced technologies, and blocking exports routed through proxy states.

In Taiwan, the document attempts a carefully hedged balance: it maintains “longstanding declaratory policy,” yet simultaneously vows to “deny aggression anywhere in the First Island Chain.” Crucially, however, the NSS signals that the U.S. now expects regional allies – Japan, South Korea, Australia – to absorb the bulk of the conventional deterrence burden. America’s ultimate deterrent, the strategy suggests, is not military overmatch but economic autonomy: ensuring the United States is “never again reliant on any adversary… for critical products.” In effect, the NSS reframes the Indo-Pacific contest as a struggle for economic self-sufficiency rather than a prelude to war.

4. The Middle East: Transactional Peace

The NSS takes an unmistakable victory lap on the Middle East, portraying the region as a rare arena of strategic success. It cites “Operation Midnight Hammer” – the June 2025 strike that “obliterated Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity” – as the decisive turning point that opened the door to a new regional architecture.

With the “war in Gaza” concluded and “all living hostages returned,” the strategy announces an end to what it disparages as “fruitless ‘nation-building’ wars.” In their place, the U.S. adopts a purely transactional approach: America will provide arms, intelligence, and technology to its “partners,” but without the traditional conditioning on governance reforms or human rights. The document rejects any expectation that Washington will “hector… these nations… into abandoning their traditions.”

The region is reimagined not as a perpetual counterterrorism theater, but as an emerging “investment destination” for AI development, energy infrastructure, and advanced nuclear technologies. Stability, the NSS implies, is now achieved not through democratization campaigns but through hard power deterrence and mutually profitable deals.

5. Africa: From “Liberal Ideology” to Return on Investment

The NSS marks a decisive break from decades of humanitarian-centered U.S. policy in Africa. Critiquing previous administrations for focusing excessively on “spreading liberal ideology,” the strategy pivots decisively toward commerce: the new objective is a “growth paradigm” that replaces the old “aid paradigm.”

This is not a partnership of equals. The strategy identifies Africa’s “abundant natural resources” and prioritizes “critical mineral development” as immediate arenas for U.S. investment. Engagement is framed in transactional terms, emphasizing “partnerships with capable, reliable states” capable of generating “profits for U.S. businesses.”

Security involvement is similarly constrained. While the document acknowledges the threat of “resurgent Islamist terrorist activity,” it rejects any long-term American presence. U.S. intervention is limited to negotiating settlements in specific conflicts – citing the DRC-Rwanda and Sudan crises – only when they stabilize conditions favorable to investment. The underlying message is unmistakable: U.S. engagement in Africa is now contingent on measurable “return on investment.”

6. The Homeland: The Ultimate Theater of War

Though domestic in geography, the NSS elevates the American homeland to the status of a primary theater of strategic concern. Border enforcement is framed as a military operation, with the strategy asserting that “Border security is the primary element of national security.”

The Administration emphasizes that it “deployed the U.S. military to stop the invasion of our country” on day one, cementing a permanent doctrine of militarized borders. Migration is no longer a demographic or humanitarian challenge, but a “destabilizing” force to be countered through coordinated sovereignty. The repeated declaration – “The Era of Mass Migration Is Over” – underscores this shift.

Defense extends beyond the borders to the skies, with the NSS calling for a “Golden Dome”: a next-generation missile defense system designed to shield the homeland from external threats. By framing immigration, drug trafficking, and missile threats as a unified “invasion,” the 2025 NSS transforms the United States into a fortress-state, where sealing the gates becomes the centerpiece of national strategy.

Conclusion: A Fortress America

The 2025 National Security Strategy marks a decisive rejection of the “globalist” consensus, replacing the post–Cold War commitment to a “rules-based international order” with a doctrine of “Flexible Realism” that elevates power over process.

By asserting that “the world works best when nations prioritize their interests,” the Administration codifies a global landscape defined by bilateral deals, zero-sum competition, and transactional diplomacy. Whether this approach ushers in the “Golden Age” promised by the President or accelerates the isolation of the United States will define the coming years. One certainty remains: the American security umbrella now comes with a clearly displayed price tag, signaling that engagement abroad is no longer unconditional, and that the fortress has a cost.