White House Releases 2025 National Security Strategy

On Dec. 4, the White House released its National Security Strategy (NSS), a document generally released once per presidential term that aims to serve as a formal explanation of the administration’s foreign policy worldview. The 2025 NSS marks a sharp turn toward hard-nosed geopolitical realism in comparison to recent strategies. The Trump administration is centering U.S. foreign policy on securing strategic advantages, expanding economic leverage and avoiding prolonged military commitments. The strategy prioritizes managing competition with China through deterrence, reshoring and securing critical supply chains, and conditioning U.S. alliances on greater burden-sharing. Furthermore, it frames U.S. engagement abroad around protecting American prosperity—including by ensuring regional stability and exploiting commercial opportunities—rather than by pressing for change in foreign societies.

Overview and Key Priorities

The Trump administration’s 2025 NSS doubles down on President Trump’s “Peace Through Strength” policy agenda, cementing that the administration will no longer prioritize democratic reforms or social priorities when engaging with foreign states. Rather, the NSS defines an “America First” foreign policy doctrine under which U.S. foreign policy decisions are made based on what will support U.S. prosperity and security. The NSS notes that America’s “core, vital national interests” are:

• Ensuring the Western Hemisphere remains “reasonably stable” and well-governed, including by preventing mass migration to the United States; facilitating government cooperation to address illicit drug cartels; and preventing “hostile foreign incursion or ownership of key assets.”
• Preventing foreign actors from inflicting damage on the American economy, including by maintaining freedom in the Indo-Pacific and all “crucial sea lanes” and ensuring that strategically important supply chains and critical mineral sources remain fully accessible to the United States.
• Supporting U.S. allies “in preserving the freedom and security of Europe.” Restoring Europe’s “civilizational self-confidence and Western identity.”
• Preventing “an adversarial power” from usurping U.S. primacy in the Middle East region, including regional oil and gas supplies and strategic chokepoints in the region. Avoiding prolonged U.S. military engagement in the Middle East region.
• Ensuring that U.S. technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), quantum computing and biotechnology, remain globally advanced and cutting-edge.

To accomplish these goals, the document lays out that the Trump administration aims to avoid unnecessary military conflicts while bolstering U.S. military, economic and diplomatic strength by pursuing pragmatic commercial, political and security arrangements with foreign partner countries. It intends to do so while adopting a “predisposition to non-interventionism,” including by avoiding imposing democratic or social change on foreign countries.

The NSS also notes U.S. foreign policy will include an expectation that U.S. allies spend “far more” of their GDP on their own defense while no longer tolerating “free-riding trade imbalances.” Under the NSS, the United States will actively suppress the emergence of “dominant adversaries” including “in some cases” regional dominant actors.

Western Hemisphere

The NSS notes the Trump administration, “after years of neglect,” will reassert the Monroe Doctrine to “restore American preeminence” in the Western Hemisphere, including by cooperating with allies to control migration and deny external states the ability to position military forces or control strategically vital assets in the hemisphere. The NSS explicitly notes the Trump administration is considering adjusting its global military presence to address threats in the hemisphere and divert troops away from theaters “whose relative import to American national security has declined.” It also notes that the terms of U.S. alliances with hemisphere allies will be made contingent on winding down the outside influence of foreign adversaries, including with respect to control of military installations, ports and key infrastructure.

The NSS calls for the White House to expedite approval and licensing processes to make the United States a partner of first choice for hemisphere economic partners, while also accelerating efforts to demonstrate how partnering with U.S. adversaries involves hidden costs, such as debt-traps, espionage or cyber intrusions. Further, U.S. embassies and government officials interacting in the region will make a greater effort to collaborate with the American private sector and leverage major business opportunities in the hemisphere, “especially major government contracts.” The NSS revisits a frequently identified explicit economic role for U.S. government officials in the hemisphere, directing them to identify strategic acquisition and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and to present those opportunities to U.S. government financing programs.

Europe

In a section titled “Promoting European Greatness,” the NSS reinforces the Trump administration’s posture toward Europe as outlined by Vice President JD Vance during the 2025 Munich Security Conference. While upholding Europe’s vital role broadly as a collection of U.S. allies, the NSS notes that the “days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over.” It further calls upon the “dozens of wealthy, sophisticated nations” to step up and assume the primary responsibility for the region and its interests, and to greatly increase the contributions to its collective defense.

The NSS takes aim at the European Union (EU) and notes that Europe has lost a significant share of global GDP in part due to harmful regulatory actions that have stifled industriousness and growth. It notes that Europe faces “larger issues” that threaten the continent’s national identity, including the censorship of free speech and migration policies that the Trump administration alleges have undermined political liberty. The NSS notes that “the continent will be unrecognizable in 20 years or less” absent a political shift by European leaders. The strategy also notes that the Trump administration wants “Europe to remain European, to regain its civilizational self-confidence, and to abandon its failed focus on regulatory suffocation.”

With respect to Russia, the NSS notes that “significant U.S. diplomatic engagement” will be required to mitigate the risk of conflict of Russia with Europe. It states that in seeking an end to the Ukraine war, the Trump administration is at odds with European officials holding “unrealistic expectations for the war [and] perched in unstable minority governments, many of which trample on basic principles of democracy to suppress opposition.” The NSS notes that European governments’ “subversion of democratic processes” is responsible for Europe not pursuing more actively an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The NSS notes that the goal of U.S. foreign policy with respect to Europe is to “help Europe correct its current trajectory,” in part due to Europe’s continued importance, strategically and culturally, to the United States. In doing so, the United States will seek to enable Europe to “stand on its own feet and operate as a group of aligned sovereign nations” by preventing adversarial powers from gaining domineering influence in the continent. The administration will also pursue opening European markets to U.S. firms, reestablishing “conditions of stability” in Europe and “strategic stability with Russia,” and leveraging commercial ties, weapons sales, political collaboration and cultural exchanges to build the capacity of Eastern, Central and Southern European nations.

Asia

The NSS explicitly notes that the Trump administration believes U.S. alliances and partnerships in the Indo-Pacific region “will be the bedrock of security and prosperity long into the future,” given the significant and growing economic heft of China and other regional countries. It notes that to address China’s rapid emergence as a global power, the United States will continue seeking to rebalance its trade relationship with China while further enhancing U.S. deterrence to prevent war in the Indo-Pacific region. Under the NSS, the Trump administration will leverage both U.S. alliances in the region and America’s economic sway to dissuade China from engaging in grand-scale IP theft, predatory subsidies, propaganda and influence operations, exports of fentanyl precursor chemicals and other threats to U.S. strategic priorities. With respect to alliances, the NSS explicitly commits to improving U.S. commercial relations with India, including through the Quadrilateral Strategic Dialogue.

The document states the Trump administration will continue to encourage U.S. major trading partners around the world to adopt trade policies that encourage China to avoid excessive exports—the NSS notes that exporting markets in Europe and Asia may look to middle-income countries as a potential growing market for their exports. With respect to Taiwan, the NSS maintains the longstanding U.S. policy of opposing any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. The Trump administration also commits to focus regional diplomatic efforts on pressing First Island Chain states to allow the U.S. military greater access to their ports and other facilities and to increase their own military spending to deter China.

Middle East

The NSS echoes several of President Trump’s key messages that were conveyed during his visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE in May 2025 while reinforcing the application of the broader “America First” foreign policy doctrine to U.S. policy in the region. It states that the United States will abandon its “misguided experiment with hectoring these nations—especially the Gulf monarchies—into abandoning their traditions and historic forms of government … we should encourage and applaud reform when and where it emerges organically, without trying to impose it from without.” While applauding actions that have been taken by the Trump administration, the Israeli government and other regional actors in recent months that have supported peace and regional stability, the NSS places little focus on future U.S. military involvement in the region, focusing instead on potential economic opportunities.

The NSS also states that multiple factors that have led the United States historically to prioritize engagement in the Middle East are no longer present—namely, there being greater global diversification of energy supplies and sources, with the United States becoming a net energy exporter; and there being comparatively less competition by global superpowers for regional influence, with that competition having “given way to great power jockeying, in which the United States retains the most enviable position.” The Trump administration notes the Middle East region will increasingly become a destination for international investment and in industries beyond oil and gas such as nuclear energy, AI and defense technology. It also notes that U.S. partners in the region may be collaborators for advancing other economic interests, such as securing critical supply chains or developing friendly and open markets in Africa.

The NSS notes that the United States will retain some strategic and political agendas in the region despite an overarching desire to avoid prolonged military involvement. It notes that certain American core interests in the region will persist, such as: ensuring that Gulf energy supplies do not fall into the hands of “an outright enemy”; ensuring the continued openness of the Strait of Hormuz and freedom of navigation in the Red Sea; preventing the region from being an exporter of terror against American interests; and ensuring that Israel remains secure, including by expanding the Abraham Accords to other regional states. The NSS notes that the United States “can and must” address these priorities without “decades of fruitless ‘nation-building’ wars.”

Africa

In Africa, the NSS reiterates that the Trump administration will not prioritize the spreading of ideology and will instead look to partner with “select countries” in Africa to prevent conflict and foster improved economic ties. The Trump administration will seek both to improve existing trade relationships with African states while transitioning others from “a foreign aid paradigm to an investment and growth paradigm” to build on Africa’s significant natural resources and “latent economic potential.”

Specifically, the NSS highlights as priorities negotiating settlements to the Sudan and DRC-Rwanda conflict, among others, as well as preventing new conflicts. It highlights the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) as an example of legislation providing for robust U.S. trade and economic ties to the continent, pledging to “amend our approach to trade and investment” with African countries. The NSS notes that as part of a broader strategy of transitioning from aid- to trade- and investment-focused ties with African states, the administration will immediately focus on critical mineral development and the energy sector, including U.S.-backed nuclear energy and natural gas.

Looking Forward

The 2025 NSS reinforces the Trump administration’s “Peace Through Strength” paradigm and reveals a continued commitment by the administration to pursue a foreign policy grounded in deterrence, selective engagement and commercially driven partnerships.

According to the NSS, stakeholders and businesses can expect continued efforts to strike regional peace agreements and resist deep military involvement while expanding U.S. access to critical markets, minerals and technologies. Companies operating in strategic sectors, including energy, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing and defense technology, should prepare for new opportunities as the administration further pursues a commercially oriented foreign policy strategy. For further guidance on how these policy shifts may affect your operations or provide new avenues for growth, please contact Brownstein’s international team.

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THIS DOCUMENT IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE YOU WITH GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING THE 2025 NATIONAL SECURITY STRATEGY. THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE SPECIFIC LEGAL ADVICE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE CONTENTS OF THIS DOCUMENT OR IF YOU NEED LEGAL ADVICE AS TO AN ISSUE, PLEASE CONTACT THE ATTORNEYS LISTED OR YOUR REGULAR BROWNSTEIN HYATT FARBER SCHRECK, LLP ATTORNEY. THIS COMMUNICATION MAY BE CONSIDERED ADVERTISING IN SOME JURISDICTIONS.