The Second Trump U.S. National Security Strategy and the Indo-Pacific

In November 2025, the Second Trump administration released its National Security Strategy (NSS) with the goal, as the document explains, of providing a “coherent, focused strategy” for how the U.S. interacts with the world. There is debate about whether these grandiose documents, which are written by every new administration, matter much. But they do provide an initial snapshot of the aspirations and high-level strategic aims of the Trump administration.

A number of core beliefs and lines of thinking feature prominently in the language and content of this NSS:

The world and national security are viewed predominantly through an economics lens: Economic priorities are repeatedly stressed in the NSS. In the discussion of the Indo-Pacific region, the NSS points out that the top priority is to “win the economic future” because economics represents the “ultimate stakes” of this region, which accounts for more than half of the world’s gross domestic product.

Only hard power matters: The NSS argues that the United States will only be respected through its strength, which is measured by having the world’s strongest economy, which develops the most advanced technologies and fields the world’s most capable military.

The world order is hierarchical: A key premise of the NSS is that the world is hierarchical with the United States at the top. U.S. national interests center on the Western Hemisphere, which the NSS argues the United States should dominate. In the Asia-Pacific, the NSS suggests that the United States should strive to find a workable balance of power with China. The NSS argues that “the outsized influence of larger, richer, and stronger nations is a timeless truth of international relations.”

Only President Trump’s thinking counts: The NSS is highly personalistic and is centered on President Trump, who is praised for having the wisdom and leadership to course-correct and for “ushering in a new golden age” of the United States.

Domestic priorities shape the national agenda: Domestic priorities shape and determine the national agenda, and the NSS is closely aligned with the Make America Great Again ideology. The NSS therefore stresses the importance of securing the country’s borders against illegal immigration, stemming drug and human trafficking, and reindustrializing the U.S. economy.

In late January, the Trump administration issued its national defense strategy (NDS), which provides a more detailed discussion of defense-oriented goals and policies. IGCC will provide an assessment of the NDS in due course, but in a new collection, four IGCC experts comment on what they see in the NSS:

• Miki Hayashi: “What’s Next for the U.S.-Japan Partnership?”
• Barry Naughton: “The National Security Strategy: Structure, Contradictions, and China”
• James Lee: “Taiwan and the Trump Administration’s National Security Strategy”
• Stephan Haggard: “Declining Great Power Rivalry? Implications for the Alliances”

Thumbnail credit: U.S. Pacific Fleet (Flickr)