US no longer sees China as top threat, military's focus shifted to Western Hemisphere: Pentagon

The United States (U.S.) Department of War has released the 2026 National Defence Strategy, revealing that China is longer the U.S. military’s primary focus, indicating a major shift in defence policy.

The Pentagon published the quadrennial report, revealing that the military will be focused on the homeland and the Western Hemisphere instead of China, placing the East Asian country as number 2 priority for the Pentagon now.

This marks a major shift from the previous report published in 2022, which placed China as number 1 priority for the U.S. military and its most significant strategic competitor.

The document outlines the War Department’s commitment to upholding the Monroe Doctrine, a 19th-century foreign policy doctrine asserting that the U.S. sphere of influence extends throughout the Western Hemisphere.

The top priority for the U.S. is now to secure unrestricted commercial and military access to key terrain from the Arctic to South America, including Greenland, the Panama Canal and the Gulf of America.

The Pentagon states that it wants allies to shoulder greater military responsibilities, adding, “We are not pursuing an isolationist agenda.”

The second is China and the third priority is to increase allies’ burden sharing, including Canada, Europe and Mexico. The fourth priority is to rebuild the defence industrial base.

Surprisingly, Russia was only mentioned briefly and the document states the American forces are prepared to defend “the U.S. homeland” against Russian threats, in a major snub to Europe amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.