Quote of the day
The U.S. abandoning NATO now doesn’t mean Europe will revert to a 1914 mindset; too many economic, cultural, and political threads have been sewn together in the post-WWII period for it to revert to that arrangement. But it is a distinctly American myopia to think Europe will stand pat, won’t evolve on its own as it manages all of its own competing interests, makes its own internal compromises, and responds to the domestic political realities of each country.
The U.S. isn’t just abandoning NATO; it’s abandoning having a hand in managing those dynamics and minimizing their impacts on its own national interest — which is another, albeit more nuanced, way of saying Trump is putting his own interest above the nation’s.
~David Kurtz
The U.S. isn’t just abandoning NATO; it’s abandoning having a hand in managing those dynamics and minimizing their impacts on its own national interest — which is another, albeit more nuanced, way of saying Trump is putting his own interest above the nation’s.
~David Kurtz
Putin is pretty pleased …
Complaints about Europe not financially committing adequately to NATO have been made since the mid 60’s when I was stationed in Germany. Their current behavior is probably in reaction to Trump. It may be Trump’s only foreign policy success. In earlier years, Europe’s burden in rebuilding following WWII was an appropriate defense of its behavior. However, those days are over.
@Jack,
That’s part of the point in the quote. The other part is that, with uncoupling comes a loss of influence by the US and perhaps increased Chinese influence.