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Trump’s National Security Plan Revives the Logic of Molotov-Ribbentrop — and Puts U.S. Allies at Risk

The plan signals a spheres-of-influence order, making great-power confrontation more likely.

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The Intellectualist
Jan 05, 2026
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Illustration by Riley Levine
By Brian Daitzman

President Donald Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy moves the United States back toward a world of spheres of influence, where major powers claim regions as their own and smaller border states are treated as negotiable. It is not a claim of a literal secret protocol, but the same Molotov–Ribbentrop logic…

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