Overview
- The newly released National Security Strategy formally abandons a values-based transatlantic framework and ranks partners by their utility to U.S. commercial and strategic interests.
- The document describes European migration as risking “civilizational extinction” and signals support for like-minded illiberal and far-right actors on the continent.
- European press accounts say the strategy wields economic pressure against the EU, treating the bloc as a buyer of U.S. fracked gas and opposing regulations such as data protection that constrain American firms.
- On Ukraine, the paper pivots from defending democracy to pursuing “strategic stability with Russia,” a framing that has unsettled European governments and commentators.
- Initial reactions in Europe include EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas affirming the U.S. as a key ally while urging more self-reliance, European Council President António Costa rejecting outside interference in party politics, and German lawmaker Norbert Röttgen warning of a “second Zeitenwende.”