In Mexico, it was practically ignored, but the National Defense Strategy (NDS) released by the U.S. Department of Defense on January 23 is a key document for understanding the new global geopolitical configuration. It is linked to the national security strategy published by the State Department at the end of November, and it assigns Mexico a role that cannot be ignored.
The NDS prioritizes the America First doctrine and focuses on protecting U.S. territory and hemispheric defense. Its threats are concentrated on Russia, China, and what it calls non-state actors, with particular emphasis on narco-terrorist organizations.
The NDS, the document states, rests on three pillars: defending the U.S. homeland, deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, and restoring U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere. It is committed to maintaining a modern nuclear arsenal, developing robust cyber defenses, and creating and deploying the Golden Dome system to counter threats from aircraft, drones, and ballistic missiles. The program is highly ambitious and includes new defense investments, the adoption of artificial intelligence in its operations, and the elimination of regulations it considers obsolete to expedite military development. It limits support for European and Asian allies, demanding they assume greater responsibilities, while focusing on decisive operations from its own territory.
But the immediate and central objective is the defense of the Western Hemisphere, encompassing border and maritime security, and control of territories such as the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Mexico, Greenland, and the Caribbean/South Atlantic routes. It guarantees military and commercial access to these areas to prevent Chinese interference in critical infrastructure and urges its regional allies to contribute more, warning of the use of deterrence in the event of a refusal to do so.
Mexico’s role in this hemispheric strategy is central due to the emphasis on the shared border and the weight the National Defense Strategy (NDS) gives to narco-terrorist groups. The strategy explicitly requires Mexico and Canada to prevent the entry of undocumented immigrants and criminals into the United States. Otherwise, it states that it will provide President Trump with “credible military options” to neutralize narco-terrorists “wherever they are,” including on foreign soil. It also warns of coordinated threats (for example, from China and/or Russia in conjunction with the cartels, regarding fentanyl) and urges concrete results in weakening criminal groups in Latin America, under threat of direct intervention. Furthermore, as we previously reported, South America is integrated as a hemispheric control space to block rival expansions: the Northern Command (in which Mexico and Canada participate) is integrated, in a way, with the Southern Command, which includes the rest of the countries in the region, including the Caribbean. The document’s vision is called “peace through strength”: it proposes negotiating from a position of superiority.
Among the purely military measures proposed is a border and maritime effort with the deployment of Golden Dome systems (anti-aircraft defenses, drones, and missiles) along its land borders (Mexico and Canada) and maritime borders (Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean). It includes permanent naval patrols and “forward operating bases” to intercept illicit flows.
It contemplates counter-narcoterrorist operations, with presidential authorization to carry out surgical strikes against cartels in Mexico and Latin America “if local governments fail in border controls.” This includes the use of special forces, drones, and cyberattacks to neutralize leaders and transnational networks. It also proposes the exchange of real-time intelligence on cartels and migrants. It stipulates that its allies must invest between 2 and 3 percent of their GDP in defense. Mexico, including the incorporation of the National Guard into the Ministry of Defense (Sedena), currently allocates only 0.7 percent of its GDP to defense.
This weekend, hours after the release of the National Defense Strategy (NDS), General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States, convened the military leaders of 34 countries in the Western Hemisphere for an unprecedented summit in Washington, D.C., on February 11, to “focus on coordinating hemispheric defense against narcoterrorism and transnational threats.”
Source: excelsior
