NATO and Western Allies

The Trump administration’s 2026 National Defense Strategy shifts U.S. focus toward the Western Hemisphere and emphasizes burden‑sharing, telling allies to take primary responsibility for their own defense—including European NATO members the document calls “substantially more powerful than Russia,” who it expects to spend 5% of GDP (3.5% on hard capabilities) and lead conventional defense and support to Ukraine. It also vows to guarantee U.S. military and commercial access to key terrain—explicitly naming the Panama Canal, the Gulf of America, and Greenland—and promises “credible military options” against narco‑terrorists, marking a re‑prioritization from the Biden-era emphasis on China as the pacing challenge.