U.S. Strategy Pivots to the Americas, Challenges EU and NATO Expansion, and Triggers Allied and Hill Pushback

Overview

• The 33-page National Security Strategy adopts an America First posture, elevates the Western Hemisphere, criticizes the EU, and rejects NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance.
• European leaders and institutions voiced alarm, with officials like Andrius Kubilius and Antonio Costa accusing Washington of seeking to undercut EU unity and interfere in European politics.
• A longer, unpublished draft reviewed by Defense One urges support for nationalist movements in Europe and proposes a new Core 5 forum of the U.S., China, Russia, India, and Japan.
• Congress advanced an NDAA that seeks to preserve U.S. force levels in Europe, restrict major equipment withdrawals, and order intelligence assessments of Russia–China military ties.
• The NSS softens public language on Russia in favor of “strategic stability,” a shift welcomed by the Kremlin and seen in Europe as weakening prospects for Ukraine’s NATO path.