The 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) signals a revolutionary change in the USA’s global priority hierarchy. The document has set aside the decades-long focus on Europe and the Middle East, coding the Western Hemisphere as the “primary and vital” area of American security. This strategic orientation is explicitly referred to in the document as “The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine,” presenting a much more interventionist version of the original 1823 doctrine adapted to 21st-century conditions.
The fundamental basis of this new doctrine is the assumption that the military, economic, or strategic presence of any “extra-hemispheric rival” in the Western Hemisphere poses a direct threat to the USA’s national security. The USA has shifted to a concept of “conditional sovereignty,” recognizing the sovereignty rights of countries in the region only as long as they are compatible with the American security umbrella. The statement in the strategy document that “we will deny hemispheric rivals the ability to position their forces or other threatening capabilities or to possess or control strategically vital assets” is a clear declaration of opposition to the ports, power plants, and telecommunications infrastructure that China has acquired in Latin America under its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Record and Expand Formula
The USA’s new approach is based on a two-pronged mechanism formulated as “Record and Expand.” The “Record” dimension envisions integrating allied governments in the region into the USA security architecture and using them as forward outposts in the fight against migration and drug trafficking. The “Expand” dimension aims to aggressively increase the USA’s economic and military influence to push China out of the region.
The most critical element of this strategy is the “securitization” of economic relations. China’s trade relations with Latin America are seen by the Trump administration as a geostrategic move to encircle the USA. In this context, the US has deployed a broad set of coercive diplomatic tools, including tariffs, investment restrictions, and, when necessary, direct regime change operations, to force regional countries to sever ties with China.
Venezuela Intervention
The USA intervention in Venezuela has been the most concrete and severe application of the theoretical framework outlined in the 2025 NSS document. The military operation carried out on January 3, 2026, to capture Nicolas Maduro and bring him to the USA may appear at first glance to be a move to “combat narco-terrorism” or “build democracy,” but the deeper strategic logic of the operation is directly related to China.
Venezuela, as the country with the world’s largest proven oil reserves, has been at the center of China’s energy security strategy for the past decade. In exchange for providing Venezuela with over $60 billion in loans, China was meeting a significant portion of its energy needs from this country through “oil-for-debt” agreements. The survival of the Maduro regime meant the preservation of China’s most important strategic partner in the Western Hemisphere. USA intervention severed this strategic partnership at its roots. China was deprived of Venezuelan oil, which it saw as an alternative to oil from the Middle East and which did not have to pass through USA-controlled chokepoints such as the Strait of Malacca. The collection of China’s billions of dollars in receivables in Venezuela was thrown into uncertainty with the change of regime. Moreover, the diversion of Venezuela’s heavy oil reserves to USA refineries will reinforce the USA’s role as a price setter in global energy markets and provide cheap energy inputs for its “reindustrialization” goals.
Claims on Greenland
Trump’s desire to purchase Greenland and his subsequent pressure tactics, which included threatening NATO allies with tariffs, are based on a highly rational geopolitical calculation from the USA perspective. At the heart of this interest are “rare earth elements.” China currently holds an 80-90% monopoly on the global processing of rare earth elements. These elements are the backbone of modern industry and defense technology, from F-35 fighter jets to electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines to guided missile systems. Greenland hosts the largest unprocessed REE reserves (neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium, etc.) outside of China. The USA strategy for Greenland aims to break China’s monopoly in this area. The provision in the 2025 NSS document emphasizing “securing access to critical supply chains” is the main basis for the pressure on Greenland.
Greenland is also a cornerstone of the USA’s “Grand Strategy” due to its geostrategic location. With global warming, the melting of the Arctic Ocean has opened the Northern Sea Route for commercial and military use. China, defining itself as a “state close to the Arctic,” is attempting to build the “Polar Silk Road” in the region. For the USA, Greenland means control of the GIUK (Greenland-Iceland-UK) Gap, the transition point between the North Atlantic and the Arctic. Greenland’s location is important for preventing Russian nuclear submarines from entering the Atlantic and halting China’s military/commercial expansion in the Arctic. The USA plans to modernize the Thule Air Base on the island as part of the “Golden Dome” missile defense system, further increasing the region’s military importance. The Trump administration’s threat to impose tariffs of up to 25% on NATO allies such as Denmark, the UK, and Germany to get them to accept its demands regarding Greenland shows that the USA is even instrumentalizing the “law of alliance” in its struggle with China.
Kissinger’s Move Against the “Unlimited Friendship” Alliance
The final step in the USA’s grand strategy is to break the “Unlimited Friendship” pact between China and Russia. The goal of “re-establishing strategic stability with Russia” outlined in the 2025 NSS document is the diplomatic cover for this plan. The USA has realized that completely cornering Russia pushes it further into China’s embrace. Therefore, it aims to separate Moscow from Beijing by offering “an agreement that will benefit Russia in Ukraine.” This is a modern version of the classic “Kissinger Move.” Just as the USA drew China to its side during the Cold War to isolate the USSR, it now seeks to neutralize Russia to isolate China.
Iran’s role in this strategy is to sever the weakest link between Russia and China. Iran served as the cement of this axis, acting as both China’s energy supplier and Russia’s military partner (supplying UAVs, etc.). With Operation Midnight Magnet, the USA weakened Iran militarily and economically, rendering it ineffective, leaving Russia without a partner in the Middle East and China without energy. This situation has made Russia more compelled to come to an agreement with the US, while eliminating China’s strategic depth.
Direct Elimination and Disenfranchisement Strategy
The 2025 National Security Strategy and the subsequent set of actions demonstrate that the USA has shifted from a policy of “containment” to a strategy of “direct elimination and disenfranchisement” in its struggle with China. The Trump administration views crises in different parts of the world not as isolated events, but as arteries feeding China’s global power projection. With Operation Venezuela, it has cut off China’s energy source in the Western Hemisphere. With pressure on Greenland, it has blocked China’s access to minerals necessary for its technological superiority. With its intervention in Iran, it has restricted China’s strategic partner and oil supplier in the Middle East. With the Zangezur move, it has placed a USA control point on China’s logistics route to Europe. With its Russia policy, it has openeddiplomatic maneuvering space to break China’s nuclear alliance with the alliance.
As a result, the USA is waging a total geopolitical war aimed at strangling China, not through military conflict, but by cutting off its resources (oil, minerals), blocking its logistics routes (Arctic, Middle Corridor), and neutralizing its allies (Russia, Iran, Venezuela). This strategy represents the most intense phase of the struggle for dominance over resources and geography, which will determine the balance of power in the 21st century.
This article was first published on the Türkiye Research Foundation’s Website on February 07, 2026.
