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A new US national security strategy is calling for “cultivating resistance” in Europe, warning that the continent is subverting democracy, blocking peace in Ukraine and facing “civilisational erasure” from high migration and falling birth rates.
The document blames European officials for thwarting US efforts to end the war in Ukraine, accusing governments of ignoring what it claims is a “large European majority” that wants peace.
An “expeditious cessation of hostilities” is essential “to stabilise European economies, prevent unintended escalation or expansion of the war, and reestablish strategic stability with Russia”, according to the document, which was published on Friday.
Its release comes as US President Donald Trump makes a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine.
The effort has sparked fears in European capitals that Washington is prepared to force Kyiv to make concessions on several of its long-standing red lines.
The 33-page document underscores the radical reorientation of US foreign policy under Trump, elevating American dominance of the western hemisphere in an updated version of the Monroe Doctrine as its primary objective.
“The days of the United States propping up the entire world order like Atlas are over,” it says.
It also highlights the ideological gulf that has opened up between Washington and its traditional allies, depicting a European continent where “economic decline is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilisational erasure”.
In a direct challenge to the EU, it says America should be “cultivating resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”. It also lauds the growing political influence of Eurosceptic far-right parties, whose rise to power in EU capitals could threaten the bloc’s future.
“American diplomacy should continue to stand up for genuine democracy, freedom of expression, and unapologetic celebrations of European nations’ individual character and history,” the strategy says.
“America encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit, and the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.”
The strategy has strong echoes of a speech US vice-president JD Vance delivered to the Munich Security Forum in February, which stunned European allies for its adversarial tone and its claim that Europe faced a greater threat from its own democratic failings than from Russian aggression.
The US will pursue a policy of “burden-shifting”, according to the document, with the aim of making Europe “stand on its own feet and operate as a group of aligned sovereign nations, including by taking primary responsibility for its own defence”.
It calls for a “readjustment of our global military presence to address urgent threats in our Hemisphere, especially the missions identified in this strategy, and away from theaters whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or years”.
The release of the national security strategy will be followed next year by the US defence posture review that will shift US military assets to meet new foreign policy priorities.
The security strategy largely addresses China as an economic challenge, saying Washington will “rebalance America’s economic relationship with China, prioritising reciprocity and fairness to restore American economic independence”.
But it adds that “this must be accompanied by a robust and ongoing focus on deterrence to prevent war in the Indo-Pacific”.
It says that “this combined approach can become a virtuous cycle as strong American deterrence opens up space for more disciplined economic action, while more disciplined economic action leads to greater American resources to sustain deterrence in the long term”.