In a wide-ranging speech over the weekend, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth singled out select allies, softened his tone on China, and criticized previous administrations for striving to make Washington “the policeman, the protector, the arbiter of the whole world.”
Hegseth’s focus is decidedly narrower. During his 40-minute address at the Reagan National Defense Forum, held just northwest of Los Angeles, California, he laid out the four priorities of the newly renamed U.S. Department of War: defending the U.S. and the Western Hemisphere, deterring China “through strength, not confrontation,” increasing burden-sharing for U.S. partners, and “supercharging” America's defence industrial base.
The speech complements Washington’s National Security Strategy (NSS), released last Thursday. According to APF Canada’s Vina Nadjibulla, the strategy emphasizes “flexible realism,” paints the Indo-Pacific as the central economic and geopolitical theatre of the 21st century, and embraces a “spheres-of-influence logic.” The NSS also underscores the importance of “rebalancing” the U.S.’s economic relationship with China.
On Saturday, Hegseth said the Trump administration seeks “a stable peace, fair trade, and respectful relations with China,” including by “respecting the historic military buildup [Beijing] is undertaking” and deepening military-to-military communications with China. Hegseth also acknowledged that the U.S.’s “unipolar moment is over.”
Leaders and laggards?
Hegseth praised South Korea — in addition to Israel and Poland — as “model allies,” an accolade apparently tied to Seoul’s commitment to increasing defence spending. South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has pledged to raise defence spending as a share of the country’s GDP to 3.5 per cent “as soon as possible,” while expanding shipbuilding collaboration with the U.S. and investing directly in American shipyards. (South Korea’s defence spending amounted to 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2025.)
Subsequently, Japan is facing growing pressure to increase its own defence spending. Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae’s pledge to hit two per cent of GDP in defence spending by the end of the 2025 fiscal year is viewed in Washington as insufficient, especially after Japan’s own defence white paper warned in July that the “international community is facing its greatest trial since the end of World War II.”
5 is the new 2
Last Thursday, Canadian Defence Minister David McGuinty said Ottawa would hit the old two-per-cent NATO defence spending goal by March. In June, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pledged to hit the new benchmark of five per cent by 2035.
Of note to Canada, Hegseth said Saturday that his department would guarantee military and commercial access to “key terrain” in the Western Hemisphere, including in the Arctic. Canada and the U.S. have wrangled for years over maritime boundaries in the Arctic, specifically in the Beaufort Sea.
