The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing a sweeping new defense strategy that could mark the most significant shift in American foreign policy since World War II. According to a report published by Politico, the U.S. Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense) under Secretary Pete Hegseth has drafted a National Defense Strategy (NDS) that would pivot U.S. military priorities toward defending the homeland and the Western Hemisphere, reducing emphasis on containing traditional adversaries such as China and Russia.
The draft, which reportedly reached Hegseth’s desk last week, represents a dramatic departure from Trump’s first-term posture, when his administration labeled China the primary threat to U.S. interests and sought to contain Beijing’s influence in the Asia-Pacific. Earlier this year, Hegseth had issued guidance prioritizing military readiness in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea—reflecting the influence of “China hawks” within the administration.
However, in just seven months of Trump’s current term, Washington has faced mounting setbacks in executing its previous strategic ambitions. The United States has struggled to compel a ceasefire in Ukraine, endured a costly tariff war with China, failed to achieve its military objectives in Yemen, and was drawn into a brief but intense conflict between Israel and Iran that ended in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire. Most recently, U.S. tariffs on India backfired, pushing New Delhi closer to Beijing, culminating in India’s participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, followed by a high-profile military parade in Beijing last week.
Meanwhile, U.S. forces have conducted a major buildup near Venezuela, deploying over 4,000 Marines and substantial naval and air assets in what some analysts describe as a possible prelude to intervention. Against this backdrop, the draft NDS signals a recalibration: a return to defending U.S. territorial and regional interests rather than maintaining a global containment posture.
It remains unclear whether Secretary Hegseth has formally signed or implemented the new strategy, and significant opposition is expected from foreign policy hawks in Washington as well as U.S. allies in Europe and Asia. The Middle East also stands as an open question, as Washington quietly withdrew from most of its bases in Iraq over the weekend.
If adopted, the strategy would represent a tangible break with the post–World War II order, in which the United States transitioned from an isolationist nation to the world’s preeminent military hegemon, succeeding the old European and Japanese empires and establishing a decades-long unipolar dominance.