The Trump administration’s newly released 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) symbolises the most dramatic recalibration of American foreign policy in decades. At its core lies a revival, almost verbatim, of the Monroe Doctrine: the idea that the United States should prioritise dominance in the Western Hemisphere while minimising long-term entanglements elsewhere, including in Europe. Though references to the 19th-century doctrine appear modernised, the strategic logic is unmistakably familiar: the United States, once it was heard in every corner of the world, be it the Middle East or Asia, intends to centralise power at home, exert control over its near abroad, and scale back global commitments that it considers wasteful, ideologically misguided, or strategically outdated.

The new NSS also presents a sharply critical portrait of Europe. In language unusually confrontational for an allied relationship, the document frames the European Union as a region suffering from demographic decline, policy fragmentation, weak defence capacity, and a loss of “civilisational self-confidence”. These characterisations serve not merely as rhetoric but as justification for Washington’s shifting priorities. In effect, the administration argues that Europe no longer possesses the strategic vitality to justify deep American involvement in its security affairs, particularly in prolonged conflicts such as the Russia–Ukraine war.

This repositioning comes at a sensitive moment. The European Union remains a principal funder and political backer of Ukraine’s defence, while Kyiv continues to set ambitious military and diplomatic expectations for the West. Yet the United States, under its recalibrated doctrine, appears increasingly inclined to end the conflict rather than extend it indefinitely. The........

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