The United States Has Redrawn the World Map

T

he United States’ 2025 National Security and Strategy Document is essentially a manifesto of the ‘New American Order’ that Trump has been trying to verbally convey to the world, primarily to the European continent, since his first term as president in 2017. In a sense, the Washington administration has codified what Europe perceives as Trump’s personal delusions into a written set of principles. When examining this document, which consists of 24 key points, it is necessary to begin by recalling two politicians from the 19th century.

The first of these was James Monroe, the fifth President of the United States, who pioneered US policies aimed at isolating the American continent as a whole from the rest of the world. From 1823 onwards, Monroe shaped his country’s global diplomatic course for nearly a century, until the First World War, through the doctrine that bears his name. During Monroe’s presidency, the colonial powers of Europe—France, the United Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Spain—still ruled over territories in North and South America. The state of Texas had not yet joined the United States. Monroe’s doctrine aimed to keep the United States out of the affairs of the rest of the world, while also opposing the presence of European powers on the American continent.

Looking at the 2025 National Security and Strategy Document, as well as the United States’ current military actions in Venezuela, we see that the European powers in the Monroe Doctrine have been replaced by the People’s Republic of China, Russia and even Iran. With the change of government in Bolivia, the US has moved to oust China and Russia from the country’s rare earth element deposits. In Chile, the election of a right-wing president will likely result in the transfer of the country’s rich copper deposits from China to the United States. It is not difficult to predict that Iran and Russia’s dominance over Venezuelan oil will not last long. Let us now turn to another important statesman of the 19th century, whose diagnosis of the United States should not be forgotten.

The United States wants to enjoy the comfort of its geographical position

This person is Otto von Bismarck, the powerful Chancellor of the German Empire, who united a loose confederation of states around the imperial throne. It is said that Bismarck summarised the geopolitical comfort afforded by the United States’ geographical position with these words: ‘Americans are a very fortunate people. They are surrounded by weak neighbours to the north and south, and by fish to the east and west.’ Today’s US administration wants to revive this diagnosis made some 150 years ago.

During the First World War, then US President Woodrow Wilson opened a breach in the Monroe Doctrine by sending troops to the European continent against Germany, sparking enthusiasm for ‘American Mandate’ among nations that did not want to fall into European hands. However, the American people reacted so strongly against involvement in European affairs that Warren Harding’s promise in 1921 to return to the isolationist Monroe Doctrine played a significant role in his election victory over Wilson.

After this date, the US felt compelled to confine itself within very strict legal frameworks of neutrality to avoid becoming involved in another war on European soil. This obsession with neutrality and isolation, which had gone beyond mere restraint and turned into a cage, reached such a point that in 1940, US President Roosevelt was unable to give a direct positive response to Britain’s requests for military aid.

Military aircraft destined for Britain were transported by horse-drawn carts from North Dakota to Canada to avoid violating neutrality laws, and from there they were able to fly to Britain. Traces of this foreign policy legacy can be found today in the US approach to the Ukraine-Russia War and in the 2025 National Strategy and Security Document.

The second Trump term’s pithy saying: ‘This is another continent’s war’

To identify these traces, let us go to a press conference held in Washington on 19 December. At the meeting, which lasted approximately two hours and during which US Secretary of State Marco Rubio answered questions from the press on global issues, the sentence he used when introducing the topic of the Ukraine-Russia War also revealed the current US perception of the world: “The Russia-Ukraine War is not our war. It is a war on another continent.” Indeed, the US National Security and Strategy Document shapes Washington’s perception of the world map as ’the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere.” In other words, it is no longer possible to speak of an Iron Curtain or ideological boundaries like the Berlin Wall, as was the case during the First Cold War.

On the contrary, the American continent, along with Greenland, is quite clearly defined as the United States’ natural sphere of influence, encompassing both the north and the south. This characterisation makes the pressure the US has exerted on Venezuela, its policy towards Nicaragua due to its economic cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, and its intensifying embargo against Cuba more understandable. Furthermore, Trump’s appointment of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as Special Representative for Greenland on 21 December 2025 is also closely related to the world map outlined in the National Security and Strategy Document.

It will certainly not be easy for Europe to accept this rhetoric, which isolates the Western Hemisphere, where the US itself is located, from the rest of the world, especially from Europe and transatlantic relations. This is because the US is not only parting ways with Europe. The document gives European civilization 20 years to live. From the US perspective, the European Union’s bureaucratic oligarchy, increasing migration, and insufficient economic resources are preparing the end of contemporary European civilization.

Going a step further than the US diagnosis on the matter, it also points to the inevitable transformation NATO will undergo due to Europe’s insufficient financing. According to the US prediction, in order to secure the financing necessary for the alliance to survive, countries outside Europe may be invited to join the alliance within 10 years. Although no country names are mentioned in the document, when it comes to financing, it is not difficult to guess that the Gulf region countries are the strongest candidates for new NATO membership seats.

Germany is the only voice on the US national security document

So what are European capitals saying about the findings in this document? So far, the only voice we have heard is that of German Chancellor Merz in his speech at the Christian Democratic Union congress in Munich on 13 December 2025. Noting that the era of ‘Pax Americana’ or ‘American Peace’ had come to an end for Germany and Europe, Merz declared that a paradigm shift was imminent, stating, ‘The Americans are aggressively defending their own interests, and we must now defend ours.’ ‘Europe must be prepared for a fundamental change in relations with the US and an increase in the threat posed by Russia,’ said the German Chancellor, pointing out that they are facing a ‘tectonic shift’ at the geopolitical level.

The question of Europe’s fate will remain on the agenda for a long time. Let us now turn to how the United States views Russia and the People’s Republic of China in this document.