Prologue: The Day Atlas Filed for Medical Leave
The unpredictable Donald Trump has done it again, and how!
December 2025 shall forever be remembered as the month America made its grand announcement to humanity: Listen, world, our back hurts. We carried you through the Cold War, the War on Terror, the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, the War on Common Sense... and now we’re done.
Yes, the 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) is essentially a doctor’s certificate for Atlas, declaring him unfit for further heavy lifting. After decades of cracking under the self-imposed responsibility of supporting the world order, Washington has finally admitted it would like to lie down, apply a warm compress, and focus on stretching exercises like “reshoring,” “sovereignty yoga,” and “border security deep breathing.”
Gone are the days when the U.S. would solemnly declare that freedom, democracy, human rights, and carbon neutrality were moral imperatives. The new script proclaims that such things are still loveable in theory but vastly inconvenient in practice—especially when tariffs can achieve the same purpose with fewer sermons.
The NSS 2025 is, therefore, not just a strategy document. It is a memoir, a midlife crisis, a reluctant confession, and perhaps even a breakup letter to the world order it once passionately courted. And like all breakup letters, it insists that “it’s not you… it’s us,” while simultaneously hinting that actually it is you, Europe, with your silly migration policies and dependence on Russian gas.
Sovereignty, Strength, Self-Reliance: America Rejoins the Gym
The NSS proudly outlines America’s ambition to become strong, sovereign, self-sufficient, and thoroughly uninterested in other people’s business unless it happens to be profitable or strategically irresistible. One can imagine Washington waking up one morning, looking in the mirror, and gasping, “My God, I’ve let myself go. I need to rebuild my industrial capacity, tighten my supply-chain core, and stop letting foreigners into my economic bloodstream.”
Thus begins America’s new fitness programme.
In this gym routine, immigration is not cardio—it is cholesterol. Migration inflows are rebranded as clogged arteries of civilisation, requiring immediate intervention through border walls, patrol drones, and a national diet free of humanitarian impulses. The NSS avoids saying this explicitly, but one can sense the subtext: “We’re not racist; we’re just allergic to demographic uncertainty.”
Strength, of course, includes military might—the sort of might that reminds the world that while America may no longer wish to be Atlas, it fully intends to continue owning Atlas-branded weapons systems. The strategy promises the most advanced missiles, space capabilities, cyber arsenals, quantum networks, hypersonic toys, and nuclear deterrents that would make even Zeus consider early retirement.
Self-reliance completes the fitness triad. America will now produce its own semiconductors, refine its own rare earths, pump its own oil, mine its own coal, and build its own back-up supply chains in case China sneezes in the general direction of a microchip. Renewable energy is gently escorted to the waiting room while oil, gas, and coal are called back into the CEO’s office for a performance review that ends with: “Congratulations, you're promoted. Again.”
Transactional Diplomacy: Friendships With Receipts
If the old American order was a sentimental sitcom about global cooperation, the NSS 2025 rewrites foreign policy as a no-nonsense business school case study. In this new arrangement, the U.S. sees itself not as “leader of the free world” but as “CEO of America Incorporated,” and alliances are treated less like marriages and more like subscription services. Washington will now re-evaluate whether NATO, the Quad, and various bilateral commitments offer sufficient return on investment. A partner unwilling to pay 2 percent of its GDP on defence is no longer an ally—it is an expense.
This managerial diplomacy is refreshingly honest. Gone is the romantic drivel about shared values, human dignity, or multilateral harmony. Instead, the world is gently informed that every diplomatic engagement comes with terms and conditions, cancellation penalties, and a renewed emphasis on “reciprocity,” which is diplomatic code for “Do what we want, or we will charge you tariffs and call it national security.”
The NSS also embraces the close cooperation of government and private industry, a phrase that historically means “lobbyists have entered the chat.” Tech giants, defence contractors, biotech firms, and space innovators will now form an unofficial politburo that decides national priorities. Human rights may get a polite nod at conferences, but AI supremacy gets the budget.
Realism as Ideology: The New Sermon on the Mount
It is amusing how the NSS claims to reject “ideology” while passionately embracing the ideology of “pragmatic realism.” This is similar to a person saying they are done with dating drama but immediately joining six dating apps because “this time it’s different.”
The NSS insists America will no longer intervene in foreign nations unless directly threatened, which sounds admirably restrained until one reads the next two paragraphs detailing how the U.S. will actively mediate the Ukraine-Russia conflict, steer Iranian-Israeli de-escalation, monitor the India-Pakistan nuclear shadow, and stabilise African flashpoints. This is not restraint; it is multitasking.
America also asserts it will avoid nation-building, which is technically true—because why build when one can influence, advise, recalibrate, adjust, pressure, or gently threaten within a rules-based-don’t-ask-who-made-the-rules order?
The guiding principle is “peace through overwhelming strength,” a phrase best understood as “peace, but with more aircraft carriers.”
Europe: A Continent Scolded Into Responsibility
The NSS’s European chapter reads like a passive-aggressive letter written by a disappointed parent to a child who refuses to stop eating sugar. Europe is told its immigration policies are naïve, its political integration misguided, its defence spending inadequate, and its strategic autonomy delusional.
At the same time, Washington still expects European nations to fund Ukraine’s recovery, deter Russia, modernise their armies, reduce dependency on Moscow and Beijing, resist populism unless it is the American-approved variety, and maintain unity despite being constantly criticised for lacking backbone.
The document delicately suggests that Europe should “negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine,” a polite way of saying, “We tried sanctions, aid, weapons, and diplomacy—but now we’d like a break. You handle it.”
Europe, in response, appears to be nodding politely while slowly backing out of the room.
The Indo-Pacific: Where the Real Drama Continues
The Indo-Pacific remains the stage where America projects its favourite narrative: “China is rising, and we are not amused.” The NSS devotes enormous energy to explaining how Washington will out-compete Beijing through alliances, decoupling, tech restrictions, military presence, and rules-based assertiveness.
India receives special attention as a “pivotal partner,” which is Washington code for, “We need you to annoy China but please don’t ask us to stop Pakistan from harassing you.” The U.S. flatters India’s strategic autonomy while silently wishing India would become slightly less autonomous and slightly more predictable in supporting American interests.
Japan and Australia are reassured that the U.S. will stand by them—provided they maintain high military readiness, consistent defence budgets, and a readiness to intercept undesirable Chinese behaviour in waterways that the NSS likes to call “international waters” and China likes to call “ours.”
The Western Hemisphere: The Monroe Doctrine Rises From the Dead
You can almost hear the ghost of James Monroe chuckling with delight as the NSS declares that America will once again treat its hemisphere as a neighbourhood that requires strict supervision. Migration is elevated from a social challenge to an existential threat. Drug cartels are portrayed as hydra-headed monsters that can only be tamed by more surveillance, more indiscriminate interdiction, and occasionally, more helpful reminders that sovereignty is flexible when America feels strongly enough about something.
Canada is politely informed that while it remains a dear friend, it must not let its domestic politics interfere with America’s need for secure supply chains, oil pipelines, and a general sense of northern order.
Latin America, meanwhile, is invited to join U.S.-led energy and trade partnerships—but only after agreeing not to flirt with China, Russia, or anything that looks remotely like socialism.
The Middle East: From Grand Vision to Minimalist Decor
The Middle East section of the NSS reads like a landlord who has decided to stop renovating the property and focus only on essential repairs. Gone are the days of democracy promotion, long-term commitments, and regime-change fantasies. Washington now prefers a minimalist approach: limited counterterrorism assistance, steady energy flows, crisis management on a need-to-intervene basis, and the occasional drone strike when absolutely necessary.
This new approach gives the impression that America is Marie Kondo-ing the Middle East. If a conflict does not “spark joy,” it is politely folded and placed on a shelf until further notice.
Israel and Iran are asked to tone down their enthusiasm for mutual destruction because America is tired and needs a nap.
Africa: The Art of Extracting Without Offending (Too Much)
The NSS expresses deep affection for Africa’s minerals. The continent’s people, politics, and developmental needs are acknowledged in the document with the same emotional investment one might give to a neighbour’s cat—pleased it exists, not overly concerned about its internal issues.
Washington promises partnerships based on trade and supply-chain resilience, which sounds generous until one realises it means “We would like your cobalt and lithium, please, and we would prefer that China and Russia do not get them first.”
Development aid is politely trimmed. Democracy promotion is queued for later review. Security cooperation is limited unless vital minerals are threatened or China builds another infrastructure project without consulting Washington.
Strategic Paradoxes: America Wants Everything at Once
One of the greatest joys of reading the NSS 2025 is observing its internal contradictions performing gymnastics. America wants to reduce global commitments while increasing global influence. It wants partners who are independent but obedient. It wants to protect global trade while using tariffs as weapons. It wants to avoid wars while building the sharpest set of military teeth in human history.
This is not strategy—it is ambitious multitasking. It is the foreign-policy equivalent of wanting to lose weight while eating cake, get eight hours of sleep while staying up watching geopolitical TikToks, and maintain global dominance while pretending not to want it.
Analysts Respond: Equal Parts Panic and Popcorn
Scholars are alarmed by the NSS’s cultural rhetoric and fear it resembles a global TED Talk delivered by a nationalist interior minister. Economists worry that protectionism will lead to retaliation and disrupted supply chains. European leaders sigh, realising they must now choose between raising defence budgets or listening to American lectures for another decade. Human-rights activists are distraught that the U.S. has demoted moral leadership to an optional add-on.
Meanwhile, realists smile with satisfaction. To them, the NSS is merely America finally getting a haircut and admitting that idealism was always just a convincing wig.
Consequences: A More Fragmented World and a More Honest America
The NSS 2025 may accelerate the shift toward a multipolar world where every nation looks out for itself. Climate cooperation may slow down because America has chosen oil and coal as nostalgic comfort foods. Human rights may lose the only heavyweight champion who claimed to care. Tech blocs may harden into Cold War 2.0. Arms races may resume with renewed vigour. Allies may drift into strategic autonomy or strategic confusion.
Yet in all this, one must admit: the NSS is brutally honest. America is tired. America is anxious. America is self-interested. America is no longer pretending otherwise.
Conclusion: Hypocrisy Unmasked—But Not Removed
Has America confessed its Big Power hypocrisy? Yes, in its way. It has peeled off the glitter, the slogans, and the speeches about world citizenship. But it has not renounced power. It has simply updated its branding.
The global village utopia is retired; the fortress has been renovated; the sermon has been replaced with a service contract; and the world is politely invited to adapt.
America is not stepping down from global leadership. It is merely changing job description—from “guardian of humanity” to “manager of selective global influence.” And the NSS 2025 is its comically elaborate cover letter.
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