2026 US National Defense Strategy: ‘The Secretary clearly succeeds in setting a new tone,’ says Patrick Cronin

Patrick M. Cronin on X: Secretary Hegseth foregrounds “America First, Peace Through Strength, Common Sense,” themes that permeate the document. The strategy rejects “cloud-castle abstractions,” the “rules-based international order,” and open-ended interventions. Some of this is a necessary corrective. But reliance on slogans, including promises of a “new golden age,” risks substituting one abstraction for another. Even so, the priorities are unmistakable: defend the homeland, deter China, compel greater allied burden-sharing, and rebuild the defense industrial base. Hegseth’s Asia line, “We will deter China in the Indo-Pacific through strength, not confrontation,” is among the document’s most effective formulations…