Trump administration wants to reset US defense; how global security policy is changing

At an event organized two days ago in Washington under the auspices of the Munich Security Conference, the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, issued a clear warning: America's security posture of the last two decades is no longer sufficient to face the emerging challenges of the post-2030 period, according to the American press. The number 2 in the White House claims that the global geopolitical landscape is transforming in a profound way, and the US defense strategy must be urgently rethinked and modernized in order to respond to new types of threats.

Vice President Vance emphasized that the world is moving towards a bipolar structure, in which external adversaries increasingly use supply chains as geopolitical weapons. This global fragmentation, coupled with the rapid development of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, hypersonic weapons and the militarization of space, requires a fundamental strategic recalibration of Western defenses.

Wolfgang Ischinger, a former German ambassador to the US, asked JD Vance at the event whether the Trump administration still sees America as a "European power". The US vice president's answer was clear: "The United States and Europe are part of the same civilizational team". Although he acknowledged that he is often perceived as a "hyper-realist" in foreign policy, focused on the transactional value of international relations, Vance insisted that the bond between the US and Europe goes beyond immediate interests and is based on common cultural and historical roots.

However, he acknowledged that there have been and will be disagreements between the two sides of the Atlantic, but these should not undermine strategic cooperation. On the contrary, Vance advocated for deeper defense cooperation, arguing that Europe must shoulder a greater share of the burden of collective security. The US vice president said that the security systems and paradigms developed in the context of the post-9/11 attacks, focused on counterterrorism and regional conflicts such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan, are outdated and inadequate for the nature of new threats.

JD Vance drew attention to the changing center of gravity of global risks, explicitly mentioning the dangers coming from states such as China, Russia and Iran, but also from non-traditional areas such as cyberwarfare, AI, outer space, vulnerabilities in supply chains and new types of weapons, including nuclear and hypersonic.

In this new strategic era, the Trump administration aims to strengthen national and hemispheric defense, expanding military and economic cooperation between the US and Canada, Vance also said. In the vision expressed by President Donald Trump's close associates, such as Steve Bannon, the future of American security consists of "hemispheric control" of the entire continent, from the Arctic to the Panama Canal, a strategy that would materialize with the stabilization of Eastern Europe, after the end of the conflict in Ukraine.

In support of this goal, Vance mentioned ambitious projects such as the "Golden Dome" missile defense system, an initiative that could cost more than $ 500 billion over the next two decades, according to a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office. At the same time, experts such as Arthur Herman support the idea of deep integration between the US and Canada in key areas such as energy, technology and defense, even suggesting the formation of a North American "superstate" capable of facing the global challenges of the coming decades.

From the above, it follows that the future of global security will depend on transatlantic cooperation, military and technological innovation and, perhaps, a redefinition of the traditional boundaries of alliances.