November 2025 National Security Strategy

Key claim: The administration’s statement of national security priorities: hemispheric defense, restored borders, allied burden-sharing, and an explicitly interest-led posture. Cover-dated November 2025; the file was published in December 2025.

Abstract

National Security Strategy of the United States of America November 2025

iii TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Introduction – What Is American Strategy?.. 1

1. How American “Strategy” Went Astray……………………………………… 1
2. President Trump’s Necessary, Welcome Correction…………………………. 2 II. What Should the United States Want?.. 3
3. What Do We Want Overall?.. 3
4. What Do We Want In and From the World?..5 III. What Are America’s Available Means to Get What We Want?.. 6 IV. The Strategy……………………………………………………………………. 8
5. Principles……………………………………………………………………… 8
6. Priorities……………………………………………………………………… 11
7. The Regions………………………………………………………………….15 A. The Western Hemisphere………………………………………………. 15 B. Asia……………………………………………………………………… 19 C. Europe…………………………………………………………………… 25 D. The Middle East………………………………………………………… 27 E. Africa…………………………………………………………………… 29

1 I. Introduction – What Is American Strategy?

1. How American “Strategy” Went Astray To ensure that America remains the world’s strongest, richest, most powerful, and most successful country for decades to come, our country needs a coherent, focused strategy for how we interact with the world. And to get that right, all Americans need to know what, exactly, it is we are trying to do and why. A “strategy” is a concrete, realistic plan that explains the essential connection between ends and means: it begins from an accurate assessment of what is desired and what tools are available, or can realistically be created, to achieve the desired outcomes. A strategy must evaluate, sort, and prioritize. Not every country, region, issue, or cause—however worthy—can be the focus of American strategy. The purpose of foreign policy is the protection of core national interests; that is the sole focus of this strategy. American strategies since the end of the Cold War have fallen short—they have been laundry lists of wishes or desired end states; have not clearly defined what we want but instead stated vague platitudes; and have often misjudged what we should want. After the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy elites convinced themselves that permanent American domination of the entire world was in the best interests of our country. Yet the affairs of other coun

Why this matters

The administration’s statement of national security priorities: hemispheric defense, restored borders, allied burden-sharing, and an explicitly interest-led posture. Cover-dated November 2025; the file was published in December 2025.

Source

Link