Daijiworld Media Network - Washington

Washington, Sep 9: Strategic circles in the US and worldwide are abuzz over the draft version of America’s new National Defense Strategy (NDS 2025), which signals a dramatic reorientation of Washington’s global military posture.

The 80-page draft, currently circulating within the Pentagon and policy community, suggests scaling back overseas commitments in Europe and Asia, with a renewed focus on homeland defense and regional primacy in the western hemisphere. It prioritizes strengthening the domestic defense industrial base and investing in advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons, and space-based capabilities.

If finalized, the doctrine would emphasize “burden-sharing” with allies — effectively urging nations to shoulder their own defense costs — while the US reasserts a more aggressive role in the Americas. Analysts see echoes of the Monroe Doctrine, pointing to recent American military activity in the Caribbean, Venezuela, and even expanded troop deployments along the southern border.

The shift has rattled allies who have long depended on the US security umbrella. Countries like Japan, South Korea, and NATO members fear abandonment, while India — central to Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy for nearly two decades — may also be forced to recalibrate its strategic outlook.

Former US envoy to China, Nick Burns, has called Trump’s tariff war on India a “strategic blunder,” warning it undermines the Quad grouping of the US, India, Japan, and Australia. Speculation is rife that Trump may even skip the Quad summit scheduled in India later this year.

For nearly two decades, successive US administrations — Bush, Obama, Trump (first term), and Biden — backed India’s rise as a counterweight to China under the Indo-Pacific framework. Now, critics fear the Trump administration’s second term could roll back this approach, embracing what some describe as “Fortress America.”