Overview
- The National Security Strategy applies a "Corolario Trump" to the Monroe Doctrine, seeks access to strategic resources and locations in Latin America, and names China the primary competitor while pledging to block outside powers from controlling vital assets in the hemisphere.
- Washington orders a global force rebalancing toward the Western Hemisphere, including a larger Navy and Coast Guard role to police sea lanes, disrupt illicit flows, and manage crisis transit routes.
- The document calls for specific deployments to secure the U.S. border and defeat transnational cartels, explicitly allowing the use of lethal force when deemed necessary.
- Recent U.S. maritime actions in Caribbean waters—reported to have destroyed at least 23 suspected smuggling boats with at least 87 deaths since September—have heightened tensions with Venezuela and drawn legal scrutiny.
- European officials condemned the strategy’s portrayal of a looming continental "civilizational" decline, while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas urged restraint in the rhetoric and still called the United States Europe’s major ally.