• Military
• WMD

• Intelligence Menu               

• Systems
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Imagery
• Links

• Homeland Security
• Space

US spy chief claims strategy of 'regime change' is over; not a hegemony rethink, nor abandonment of interventionism, say observers

Global Times

By Deng Xiaoci and Bai Yunyi Published: Nov 02, 2025 04:31 PM

Addressing officials on Friday in the Middle East, the US National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard claimed that America's former strategy of "regime change or nation building" had ended under President Donald Trump, AP reported local time Saturday. According to some Chinese observers, the purpose of such a claim was to serve Republican interests and criticize previous Democratic administrations rather than truly reflecting on the US hegemonic approach. They believed that the Trump administration's current foreign policy has placed greater emphasis on cost efficiency, while interference in other countries' internal affairs has continued unabated, albeit in a more interest-oriented manner.

Gabbard, a former congresswoman from Hawaii and US Army National Guard veteran, made the claim at the Manama Dialogue, an annual security conference in Bahrain put on by the International Institute for Security Studies, AP reported.

AP quoted Gabbard as saying that "for decades, our foreign policy has been trapped in a counterproductive and endless cycle of regime change or nation building."

While calling it a "one-size-fits-all approach, of toppling regimes, trying to impose our system of governance on others, intervening in conflicts that were barely understood and walking away with more enemies than allies," Gabbard admitted the results were "trillions spent, countless lives lost and in many cases, the creation of greater security threats."

Serving partisan interests, such a claim merely criticized past policies rather than genuinely reflecting on US hegemony, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Such criticism is undoubtedly correct, and it aligns with the broader understanding of the American public, Lü added.

Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, said the shift in US foreign approach was a passive adjustment caused by domestic difficulties.

He stressed, however, that this shift does not signal a complete abandonment of interventionism. The US has always believed that "the more Americanized the world becomes, the safer America is." Once it regains strength, its traditional playbook of overseas interference and regime subversion is likely to return, Li warned.

Despite the claim by the US national intelligence director, the AP noted that Gabbard did not mention the US deployment of warships off South America, fatal strikes targeting alleged drug-running boats and US orders for the CIA to run covert operations targeting Venezuela, which has stoked fears of invasion and speculation that the US could try to topple the Venezuelan president.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the US government of "fabricating a new eternal war" against him, as the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R Ford inches toward the Venezuelan coast, Al Jazeera reported on October 28.

The report said speculation was mounting that the US is actually angling for regime change in Venezuela, but it is not the only country whose domestic affairs or relations with other countries the US seems determined to interfere in. The current US administration has also made comments about, or direct moves toward, the internal affairs of Brazil, India, Israel and Argentina, among others, according to the Al Jazeera.

The current US administration might be more calculating about interests, and possibly more focused on immediate gains, Lü said.

Notably, any US military action against Venezuela would reveal that the so-called "end to intervention" applies mainly outside the Western Hemisphere. Within its self-proclaimed sphere of influence, the US retains its habitual interference in other countries' internal affairs, Li said.