NATO declared to be “not forever” -- A Critical Reading of the new US National Security Strategy

Alastair Crooke, 7 December 2025

A National Security Strategy (NSS) is produced periodically by US Administrations (Trump authored one during his first term). Mostly these documents lay out an idealised version of an Administration’s foreign and security policy, and do not have great practical import – because of what is left out -- i.e. entrenched US political and economic interests; the deep foreign policy consensus overseen by the curator class of the deep security state; and the policies espoused by the mega donor collective.

Nonetheless, this recently-released NSS reads rather differently by putting a distinctive ‘America First’ gloss to US foreign policy, eschewing global hegemony; ‘domination’ and ideological crusades in favour of pragmatic, transactional realism focused on protecting core national interests -- homeland security, economic prosperity, and regional dominance in the Western Hemisphere. The US thus will “no longer prop up the entire world order like ‘Atlas’ and expects Europe to shoulder more of its own defence burdens”.

It critiques the US’ earlier pursuit of global primacy as ‘a failure’ that ended up weakening America - and situates Trump’s policy as a ‘necessary correction’ to the earlier stance. It therefore accepts the tilt towards a multipolar world.

Two key foreign policy aims are nuanced rather than radically recast:

First, China is downgraded from ‘primary threat’; ‘pacing threat’ to economic competitor (Taiwan is treated as an instrument of deterrence).

And in respect to Russia, it says:

“It is a core interest of the United States to negotiate an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, in order to stabilize European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia, as well as to enable the post-hostilities reconstruction of Ukraine to enable its survival as a viable state”.

The document does not mention ‘strategic peace’ with Russia, but only a ‘cessation of hostilities’, i.e. a ceasefire. The careful choice of language used may signal that Trump does not intend a full settlement with Russia on its security concerns, but only a truce, a “cessation of hostilities”.