The "Don-Roe" Doctrine : Pete Hegseth at the Shangri-La Dialogue

There is a new doctrine shaping American foreign policy in the Asia-Pacific, and it does not have an official name. But if you listened carefully to Pete Hegseth's address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday, its logic was unmistakable: transactional, unsentimental, and built on the twin pillars of Donald Trump's instincts and the Monroe Doctrine's territorial clarity.

The Monroe Doctrine guided the US in the 19th and 20th centuries, as the intellectual foundation for treating the entire Western Hemisphere as a US sphere of influence, asserting that America has unique and superior interests in its own backyard that override the normal rules of international relations.

Pete Hegseth dubbed the new Asia-Pacific policy the “Donroe Doctrine”, that is: America first in its own hemisphere, and America selective everywhere else on the planet.

Hegseth, the US Secretary of War, delivered the keynote address at the region's premier security forum roughly two weeks after Trump sat down with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing, agreeing on a framework of "constructive strategic stability."

His speech was always going to be read as a barometer of what that summit meant in practice. What emerged was a picture of a United States recalibrating its alliances with cold-eyed precision: rewarding those who carry their share, shunning those who don't, and carefully managing the rise of China.

The Chinese Navy Frigate Hengyang, one of three Chinese warships that voyaged into the Tasman Sea in Feb 2025/ Image ADF

For Hegseth, its all about burden-sharing. He suggested defence spending of 3.5 percent of GDP will be the "new global norm," declared the era of American-subsidised security "over," and announced that the US would prioritise what he called "model allies", nations that are "most capable, clear-eyed and ready to defend their national interests.".

The benefits for those who qualify are concrete: expedited arms sales, deeper industrial collaboration, expanded intelligence sharing. "For those nations, we are moving them to the front of the line," he said.

The roll call of countries that made that list was telling. Hegseth praised South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and India by name. Taiwan and New Zealand were initially not mentioned.

When asked by New Zealand journalist Anna Fifield whether Wellington's plan to lift defence spending from just over one percent to just over two percent of GDP over eight years was sufficient, Hegseth was characteristically blunt. "If I'm being honest, two percent is not enough, and so two percent is freeloading," he said. "But I don't have anything against New Zealand. I want partners to step up. I didn't intentionally leave it off my list."

He then added : "We've been friends for a long time, so you better have the same visibility as we do, because if we don't, our alliance is meaningless. And that's the kind of realism President Trump has asked me to inject into all relationships."

New Zealand Defence Minister Chris Penk, also attending the forum, reaffirmed New Zealand's commitment to increasing its defence capabilities in a subsequent session. The optics, however, were interesting, with Wellington's spending targets publicly measured against Washington's expectations, and found wanting.

On China, the tone was a calculated departure from last year, when Hegseth warned that the PLA was rehearsing for the "real deal" and described the Chinese threat as real and potentially imminent.

On Saturday he said US-China relations were "better than they have been in many years" and described the Beijing summit as "historic." The United States, he said, sought "a genuinely stable equilibrium, a favourable but durable balance of power in which no state, including China, can impose its hegemony." He also called for expanded military-to-military communication to "deconflict and reduce the risk of miscalculation."

The Trump-Xi Bilateral talks earlier this year/ Image US Govt

Xi had reportedly warned Trump during their summit that mishandling Taiwan could risk a clash, and Hegseth's initial remarks did not mention Taiwan once.

When pressed on the status of a proposed US$14 billion arms sale to Taipei, which has reportedly been paused amid ammunition shortages caused by the US-Iran conflict, he dodged the question. "Any decision will rest with President Trump," he said.

But Hegseth maintained a hard edge beneath the diplomatic caution. "Make no mistake,” he said, “America is a Pacific nation.” "We insist that China respect our long-standing position in the region." US strategy, he confirmed, continues to prioritise "lethal capabilities" and "deterrence by denial" along the first island chain.

The broader architecture of what Hegseth outlined in Singapore is a Pacific security order that is increasingly transactional and tiered. Nations that spend, contribute and align get access and arms and intelligence. Those that don't get a warning or, as New Zealand discovered on Saturday, a pointed public omission followed by the word "freeloading."

"Alliances only work when they are true partnerships," Hegseth said. For Wellington, that sentence perhaps now carries a more specific price tag.

 Asia Media Centre