Pentagon releases 2026 National Defense Strategy

​​​​​​​By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) - The Defense Department released its 2026 National Defense Strategy (NDS) on Friday, laying out a sweeping shift in US defense priorities that emphasizes homeland security, deterrence through military strength and greater burden-sharing by allies.

The memorandum signed by defense chief Pete Hegseth argues that past US governments weakened the military by engaging in prolonged nation-building and overseas interventions that diluted readiness and undermined the “warrior ethos.”

The new approach, the document said, refocuses the armed forces on their “core, irreplaceable role” of deterring and winning wars that directly affect American interests.

The NDS outlines four primary lines of effort: defending the US homeland, deterring China in the Indo-Pacific region through strength rather than confrontation, increasing burden-sharing with allies and partners, and revitalizing the US defense industrial base.

Homeland defense is described as the military’s top priority, with an expanded focus on border security, countering narcotics trafficking organizations designated as terror groups, protecting key terrain in the Western Hemisphere such as the Panama Canal and Greenland, and strengthening air, missile, cyber and nuclear defenses.

The China strategy endorses expanded military-to-military communication with Beijing to reduce the risk of conflict.

"About China, we will also be clear-eyed and realistic about the speed, scale, and quality of China’s historic military buildup. Our goal in doing so is not to dominate China; nor is it to strangle or humiliate them. Rather, our goal is simple: To prevent anyone, including China, from being able to dominate us or our allies—in essence, to set the military conditions required to achieve the NSS goal of a balance of power in the Indo-Pacific that allows all of us to enjoy a decent peace," it said.

The document characterizes Russia as a "persistent but manageable threat," particularly to NATO’s eastern members, and stresses that European allies must take primary responsibility for their own conventional defense. It also highlights Iran and North Korea as security challenges, citing recent US and allied military operations as evidence of restored deterrence.

A central theme of the strategy document is burden-sharing. The Trump administration argues that allies must significantly increase defense spending and assume greater responsibility for regional security, pointing to a new global benchmark of 5% of GDP for defense-related expenditures endorsed at NATO’s Hague Summit.

The strategy also calls for a “once-in-a-century” revitalization of the US defense industrial base, framing it as essential to sustaining military readiness, supporting allies and ensuring the US can produce weapons and equipment at scale during crises.