Immediately after the unveiling of the Trump administration's National Security Strategy (NSS), Pentagon has become a centre of heated debate over the orientation of American power abroad.

At the heart of this is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's push to reorganise US combatant command structure to bring it in line with the strategy. These efforts, senior military officials warn, would lack regional expertise and weaken deterrence in Europe and Middle East.

Beneath these controversies, NSS principles are rapidly translating into concrete policy actions. Recently, Trump declared fentanyl a "weapon of mass destruction", a highly-securitised framing that significantly broadens the document's conception of national security threats. Together with Europe's willingness to lead a "multinational force" in Ukraine, these actions underline accelerated operationalisation of "America First".

This shift is already visible in NSS's elevation of Western Hemisphere as America's first line of defence, reflected in administration's decision to order a naval blockade of Venezuelan oil tankers and intensify pressure on Maduro government. This move signals implementation of Monroe-style doctrine, recast as the "Trump Corollary", to counter narcotics trafficking, illicit migration and China's growing economic and strategic footprint in Latin America.

But it underestimates the challenge: China is the largest trading and strategic partner of several regional countries. Through its extensive investments in energy, infrastructure and technology and sustained cultural and........

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