The National Defense Strategy set to be released by the Pentagon sometime in the next few weeks, will mirror that of U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda, with multiple U.S. officials telling Defense News that the department will prioritize protecting the homeland and the Western Hemisphere.
While the focus may be different from past such strategy documents, the underlying principle is still that of geopolitics. Instead of containing China in the Western Pacific, the new strategy will be aimed at driving China out of the Western Hemisphere. The Pentagon document lays out the military’s plans to increase lethality, deter aggression, confront adversaries and defend America’s borders, a mission one official told Defense News was “why Trump was elected.” Another official claimed that the Pentagon can use this hyperfocus on the Western Hemisphere to better counter alleged Chinese “malign activity” in Latin America, a region often thought of as “America’s backyard.”
