Overview
- The 34-page blueprint elevates defending the U.S. homeland and Western Hemisphere and calls for a stronger denial posture in the Indo-Pacific’s first island chain.
- European allies are told to assume primary responsibility for conventional defense against Russia, with the U.S. providing critical but more limited support.
- Washington confirms a recalibrated force posture in Europe, including fewer U.S. troops near Ukraine’s borders.
- China is cast as a settled regional power to be deterred through strength and diplomacy, and the strategy makes no explicit mention of Taiwan.
- The Pentagon pledges credible options to guarantee U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain such as Greenland, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Panama Canal, and says South Korea can lead deterrence of North Korea with limited U.S. backing.