NATO will continue its support to Europe but will prioritize US security. Photo credit: Touch of Light Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
The United States will remain a key NATO ally and partner with Europe but will prioritize its security and deterrence against China, according to the Pentagon 2026 National Defense Strategy document released Friday.
As per the document, Washington will continue to play a central role within NATO, even as it rebalances its military presence in Europe. While American involvement in Europe will continue, according to the new strategy, the United States “must and will prioritize homeland defense and deterrence against China.”
In Europe and elsewhere, “allies will take the lead against threats that are less serious to us but more serious to them, with critical but more limited support from the United States,” the document reads. The release of the 2026 National Defense Strategy follows the release of the new US National Security Strategy in November 2025. This was widely seen as a break with the tradition of close transatlantic cooperation.
It is said that previous US strategies had not given enough weight to national interests, prioritizing the defense of other countries to the detriment of the American people. The new approach is guided by the principle of “America First.”
The Russia-Ukraine war
Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy from last year drew an outcry from Europeans after it was said that Europe faced “civilizational erasure” and may one day lose its status as a reliable US ally.
The Trump administration is putting pressure on Kyiv to reach a peace deal in the war triggered by Russia’s invasion in Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow is demanding Kyiv cede its entire eastern industrial area of Donbas before it stops fighting. Europe, however, stands with Ukraine.
The Pentagon’s strategy document has it that Russia would remain a “persistent but manageable” threat for NATO‘s eastern members and that the Pentagon would provide Trump with options to “guarantee US military and commercial access to key terrain” in various parts of the world, including in Greenland.
Trump said earlier this week he had secured total and permanent US access to Greenland in a deal with NATO, whose head said allies would have to step up their commitment to Arctic security to ward off threats from Russia and China.
US Army heads toward Iran
President Trump said on Thursday the United States has an “armada” heading toward Iran but that he hoped he would not have to use it, as he renewed warnings to Tehran against killing protesters or restarting its nuclear program.
The deployments to the Middle East expand the options available to Trump, both to better defend US forces in the region at a moment of high tension and to take any additional military action after striking Iranian nuclear sites in June. According to the Pentagon document, while Iran had suffered setbacks in recent months, it was aiming to rebuild its military, with Tehran leaving open the possibility that it could “try again to obtain a nuclear weapon.”
Even with US troops heading to the region, the document maintains that Israel was a “model ally” and could be further empowered to defend itself. The United States has occasionally had a strained relationship with Israel over its war in Gaza.
