The era of liberal hegemony is over. For three decades, the guiding principle of American foreign policy was a fusion of messianic universalism and raw power, a belief that the United States existed not merely to secure its own interests but to evangelize the “rules-based international order” to the ends of the earth. From the Balkans to Baghdad, American grand strategy was predicated on the assumption that Washington was the armed curator of a global garden.
The 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), just released by the Trump administration, is the obituary for that era. But for Europe, it is something far more urgent: a cold shower. The document dismantles the machinery of automatic American protection and replaces it with a framework of sovereign realism. It is a colder, sharper vision of the world, and it delivers a message that Brussels, Berlin, and Paris can no longer afford to ignore: the American legion is not coming home, but it is locking the gates of its own fortress.
The most striking feature of this document is its explicit rejection of the ideological crusade. For years, the “Freedom Agenda” was the shibboleth of the transatlantic establishment. Yet the 2025 NSS declares, in stark, unadorned prose, that U.S. policy is “not grounded in traditional, political ideology”. It buries the era of nation-building by asserting that America will “seek good relations … with the nations of the world without imposing on them democratic or other social change”.
For European capitals accustomed to moralizing about democracy while relying on American hard power, this is a devastating pivot. It signals that Washington no longer views the internal governance of other states as a problem to be solved, but as a sovereign reality to be accepted. The “Empire of Liberty” has been replaced by a republic of interests — and those interests are increasingly local.
This geographical retraction is explicit. The strategy announces a “readjustment of our global military presence” away from theaters of declining importance. In its place, it prioritizes a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine, focusing on a “Hemisphere that remains free of hostile foreign incursion”. The NSS states bluntly that “border security is the primary element of national security”.
This brings us to the harsh lesson for Europe. The document does not mince words about the continent’s condition, describing a “stark prospect of civilizational erasure” and warning that without a revival of spirit and strength, Europe may become “unrecognizable in 20 years or less”. The United States remains indispensable for now, but this strategy makes clear that it will not remain the “Atlas” propping up the world forever.
The hope here does not lie in a renewal of American charity, but in the necessity of European maturity. The NSS demands a “Hague Commitment” from NATO allies to spend 5% of their GDP on defense. To the European ear, this figure sounds like madness. To the realist, it sounds like survival.
This is the new reality: The United States is securing its own solvency. It is reindustrializing, securing its borders, and focusing on the economic competition with China. It is doing precisely what a sovereign nation should do. The lesson for Europe is not to beg Washington to return to the status quo, but to emulate this “sovereign realism” itself.
The era of the free ride is over. The era of sovereign responsibility has begun
If there is hope in this document, it is the hope of necessity. A Europe that is forced to spend 5 percent of its GDP on defense is a Europe that finally takes itself seriously as a geopolitical actor. A Europe that can no longer hide behind American skirts must rediscover its own “civilizational self-confidence”.
The United States remains the linchpin of the West, but a linchpin cannot hold a crumbling wheel. By retracting its unconditional security blanket, the Trump administration is forcing Europe to decide whether it wishes to be a partner or a dependent. The era of the free ride is over. The era of sovereign responsibility has begun. America has made its choice; now Europe must make hers.
