America’s New Strategy — Why Canada Should Be Concerned
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Summary
The Trump administration just released its brand new 2025 National Security Strategy, a blueprint for how America plans to defend itself, project power, and reshape global alliances, and inside that document are things that absolutely affect us, our sovereignty, and our future.
Transcript
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Hey Canada, quick question. Are you actually paying attention to what's happening right now
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in the United States? Because while we're distracted with the usual noise, the Trump
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administration just released its brand new 2025 National Security Strategy, a blueprint for how
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America plans to defend itself, project power, and reshape global alliances. And inside that document
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are things that absolutely affect us, our sovereignty and our future. Most Canadians haven't even heard
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it or about it. This isn't some academic PDF sitting on the shelf. This is a playbook, the roadmap,
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the statement of the intent of the world's most powerful military. It spells out exactly how the
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US intends to handle China, Russia, NATO, the Arctic, energy security, and the entire Western
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hemisphere. Our hemisphere. And the tone is blunt, unapologetic, and firmly American. And here's
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where Canada should perk up. The strategy emphasizes hemispheric control, military dominance, and freedom
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of navigation in the strategic regions, including the Arctic. Remember the Northwest Passage? We've
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always maintained it. But under the doctrine, the US could easily justify sailing through it
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without our permission. Not because they're hostile, but because the strategy now explicitly
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prioritizes American interests, even in our backyard. Canada isn't mentioned as a threat,
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but we are treated as an assumption, a given, a background character in America's strategic
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outlook. That should bother us. And here's something even more consequential. The document makes it very
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clear that the US is prepared for a full-scale economic and strategic confrontation with China.
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Not just military, but through trade, supply chains, and technology and energy. And when the US says it
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wants to cut economic dependence on China, it doesn't just mean America. It means everyone in the American
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security orbit, including us. In other words, Canada's massive two-way trade with China, from critical
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minerals to consumer goods, may not survive this era. The US strategy strongly implies that allies will be
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expected to align with Washington and sever or drastically restrict economic ties with China,
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whether they're ready for that or not. That's the inferred warning. If the US decouples from China,
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Canada will be told to do the same or face consequences within the alliance. The doctrine
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also signals a shift in alliances. The US is done carrying partnerships on its back. NATO, collective
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defense, long-standing commitments, all now framed transactionally. What do you contribute? Or why should
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we show up for you? For a country like Canada already criticized for low defense spending and deep trade with
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China. That's a double warning. Our security has always been protected by geography and friendship. This
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strategy implies those freebies might be over and that Canada may have to choose sides on issues we've avoided
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choosing for decades. Because while Canada still hasn't produced its own modern national security strategy, the US
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just released a 60-page one that directly impacts us economically, militarily, and geopolitically. This isn't about
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being anti-American. It's about being pro-Canadian and understanding the strategic reality our closest ally is
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actually operating from. So I'll end this. Are Canadians awake to this? Do we realize that the US just declared
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its strategic worldwide view for the next four years? Do we understand what that means to the Arctic,
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for NATO, for our borders, for our defense spending, for our sovereignty, and now for our trade? Or are we
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about to sleepwalk into an era where the rules for us are going to be written, and not by us? Please read the
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entire new national security strategy of the United States of America, and today we've decided to play
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Section 3 of this strategy that deals solely with the Western Hemisphere. Because if we don't define our
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interests, someone else will, and they already have. But before that, it's important to understand an idea
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called the Monroe Doctrine, as understanding it will help better comprehend the United States national
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security strategy focused on the Western Hemisphere. The doctrine goes back to 1823, when the United
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States was still a young republic, and Europe was full of empires. At that time, many countries like
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Latin America had just broken free of colonialism. Spain, Portugal, and other European powers were
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thinking about taking their colonies back. The US didn't like that, so President James Monroe made a
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declaration. The Western Hemisphere is closed to foreign powers. No new colonies. No European
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interference. And in exchange, the US will stay out of the European wars. It was simple. This side of the
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world is ours to protect. Over time, that idea of protecting the Western Hemisphere turned into
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something much bigger. It became, this side of the world is ours to influence and sometimes control.
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Throughout the 1900s, the US used the Monroe Doctrine to intervene across Latin America, sometimes to fight
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communism, sometimes to protect American business interests, and sometimes to keep governments in line. And
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now, in 2025, the Monroe Doctrine is being revived in a very modern context.
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It has become customary for documents such as this to mention every part of the world and issue. On the assumption that any
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oversight signifies a blind spot or a snub. As a result, such documents become bloated and unfocused,
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the opposite of what a strategy should be. To focus and prioritize is to choose, to acknowledge that not
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everything matters equally to everyone. It is not to assert that any peoples, regions, or countries are
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somehow intrinsically unimportant. The United States is by every measure the most generous nation in history.
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Yet, we cannot afford to be equally attentive to every region and every problem in the world.
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The purpose of national security policy is the protection of core national interests. Some priorities
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transcend regional confines. For instance, terrorist activity in an otherwise less consequential area
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might force our urgent attention, but leaping from that necessity to sustained attention to the periphery
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is a mistake. A. Western Hemisphere. The Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine. After years of neglect,
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the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American permanence in the
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Western Hemisphere and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region.
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We will deny non-hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities,
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or to own or control strategically vital assets in our hemisphere.
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This Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine is a common sense and potent restoration of American power
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and priorities, consistent with American security interests. Our goals for the Western Hemisphere can be
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summarized as enlist and expand. We will enlist established friends in the hemisphere to control
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migration, stop drug flows, and strengthen stability and security on land and sea. We will expand by
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cultivating and strengthening new partners while bolstering our own nation's appeal as the hemisphere's
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economic and security partner of choice. Enlist. American policy should focus on enlisting regional
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champions that can help create tolerable stability in the region, even beyond those partners' borders.
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These nations would help us stop illegal and destabilizing migration, neutralize cartels,
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nearshore manufacturing, and develop local private economies, among other things. We will reward and
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encourage the region's governments, political parties, and movements broadly aligned with our principles and
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strategy. But we must not overlook governments with different outlooks, with whom we nonetheless share
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interests and who want to work with us. The United States must reconsider our military presence in the
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Western Hemisphere. This means four obvious things. A readjustment of our global military presence to
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address urgent threats in our hemisphere, especially the missions identified in this strategy, and away from
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national theaters whose relative import to American national security has declined in recent decades or
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years. A more suitable Coast Guard and Navy presence to control sea lanes, to thwart illegal and other
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other unwanted migration, to reduce human and drug trafficking, and to control key transit routes
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in a crisis. Targeted deployments to secure the border and defeat cartels, including, where necessary,
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the use of the use of lethal force to replace the failed law enforcement only strategy of the last several decades,
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and establishing or expanding access in strategically important locations. The United States will
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prioritize commercial diplomacy to strengthen our own economy and industries using tariffs and reciprocal trade
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agreements as powerful tools. The goal is for our partner nations to build up their domestic economies,
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while an economically stronger and more sophisticated Western Hemisphere becomes an increasingly attractive
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market for American commerce and investment. Strengthening critical supply chains in this hemisphere
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will reduce dependencies and increase American economic resilience. The linkages created between America and
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our partners will benefit both sides, while making it hard for non-hemispheric competitors to increase their
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influence in the region. And even as we prioritize commercial diplomacy, we will work to strengthen our security
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partnerships, from weapons sales, to intelligence sharing, to joint exercises. Expand. As we deepen our partnerships with
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countries with whom America presently has strong relations, we must look to expand our network in the region. We want
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other nations to see us as their partner of first choice, and we will, through various means, discourage their
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collaboration with others. The Western Hemisphere is home to many strategic resources that America should partner with
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regional allies to develop, to make neighboring countries, as well as our own, more prosperous. The National
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Security Council will immediately begin a robust interagency process to task agencies, supported by our
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intelligence communities' analytical arm, to identify strategic points and resources in the Western Hemisphere,
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with a view to their protection and joint development with regional partners. Non-hemispheric competitors have made
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major inroads in our hemisphere, both to disadvantage us economically in the present, and in ways that may harm us
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strategically in the future. Allowing these incursions without serious pushback is another great American
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strategic mistake of recent decades. The United States must be preeminent in the Western Hemisphere as a
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condition of our security and prosperity, a condition that allows us to assert ourselves confidently where and when we need
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to in the region. The terms of our alliances and the terms upon which we may provide any kind of aid must be contingent
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on winding down the adversarial outside influence. From control of military installation ports and key infrastructure
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to the purchase of strategic assets broadly defined, some foreign influence will be hard to reverse given the
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political alignments between certain Latin American governments and certain foreign actors. However, many
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governments are not ideologically aligned with foreign powers, but are instead attracted to doing business with
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them for other reasons, including low costs and fewer regulatory hurdles. The United States has achieved success in
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rolling back outside influence in the Western Hemisphere by demonstrating with specificity how many
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hidden costs in espionage, cyber security, debt traps, and other ways are embedded in allegedly low cost foreign assistance.
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We should accelerate these efforts, including by utilizing U.S. leverage in finance and technology to induce countries to
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reject such assistance. In the Western Hemisphere and everywhere in the world, the United States should make clear that
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American goods, services, and technologies are far better by in the long run because they are higher quality and do not
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come with the same kind of strings as other countries' assistance. That said, we will reform our system to expedite
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approvals and licensing, again, to make ourselves the partner of first choice. The choice all countries should
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face is whether they want to live in an American-led world of sovereign countries and free economies or in a parallel
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one in which they are influenced by countries on the other side of the world. Every U.S. official working in or on the region must
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be up to speed on the full picture of detrimental outside influences while simultaneously applying
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pressure and offering incentives to partner countries to protect our hemisphere. Successfully protecting our
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hemisphere also requires closer collaboration between the U.S. government and the American private sector.
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All our embassies must be aware of major business opportunities in their country, especially government
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contracts. Every U.S. government official that interacts with these countries should understand that part of
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their job is to help American companies compete and succeed. The U.S. government will identify strategic acquisition
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and investment opportunities for American companies in the region and present these opportunities for
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assessment by every U.S. government financing program, including but not limited to those within the
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Department of State, War and Energy, the Small Business Administration, the International Development Finance Corporation,
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the Export-Import Bank, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
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We should also partner with regional governments and businesses to build scalable and resilient energy
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infrastructure, invest in critical mineral access, and harden existing and future cyber communication
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networks that will take full advantage of American encryption and security potential. The aforementioned U.S.
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government entities should be used to finance some of the costs of purchasing U.S. goods abroad.
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The United States must also resist and reverse measures such as targeted taxation, unfair regulation,
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and expropriation that disadvantage U.S. businesses. The terms of our agreements, especially with those
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countries that depend on us most and therefore over which we have the most leverage, must be sole source
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we should make every effort to push our foreign companies that build infrastructure in the region.