The Western Hemisphere is a top priority region for President Donald Trump’s National Security Strategy.
After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect the U.S. homeland and its access to key geographies throughout the region.
The U.S. will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in the Western Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.
America will enlist established friends in the Hemisphere to control migration, stop drug flows, and strengthen stability and security on land and sea. It will expand by cultivating and strengthening new partners while bolstering its appeal as the Hemisphere’s economic and security partner of choice.
The U.S. will reward and encourage the region’s governments, political parties, and movements broadly aligned with our principles and strategy. But America must not overlook governments with different outlooks with whom we nonetheless share interests and who want to work with us.
The United States must reconsider our military presence in the Western Hemisphere. This means 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.
It means targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including where necessary the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement-only strategy of the last several decades.
And it means establishing or expanding access in strategically important locations. The United States will prioritize commercial diplomacy, to strengthen our own to strengthen our own economy and industries, using tariffs and reciprocal trade agreements as powerful tools. The goal is for our partner nations to build up their domestic economies, while an economically stronger and more sophisticated Western Hemisphere becomes an increasingly attractive market for American commerce and investment.
As we deepen our partnerships with countries with whom America presently has strong relations, America must look to expand its network in the region. We want other nations to see us as their partner of first choice, and we will through various means discourage their collaboration with others.
The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a condition of our security and prosperity — a condition that allows the U.S. to assert itself confidently where and when it needs to in the region.
After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect the U.S. homeland and its access to key geographies throughout the region.
