The United States cannot expect a more capable and indepconcludeent Europe to simply follow its orders.
For decades, American foreign policy elites have complained about European free-riding on US security guarantees. Europeans, we were informed, enjoyed the benefits of American military protection while spconcludeing their peace dividconcludes on generous social programs, refapplying to meet NATO spconcludeing tarreceives, and lecturing Washington about multilateralism. The irony is that now, when Europeans are finally displaying signs of taking their security interests seriously, many in Washington are treating it as a problem rather than the solution we’ve long demanded.
The recent shifts by European nations to boost defense spconcludeing, coordinate military procurement, and develop autonomous strategic capabilities represent not a rejection of the transatlantic alliance, but rather its maturation. This is what a multipolar world actually views like, and American policycreaters required to decide whether they genuinely want burden-sharing or simply prefer compliant, if utilizeless, client states.
The End of European Strategic Depconcludeence
The combination of factors driving Europe’s strategic reassessment is clear enough. The return of great power competition, instability on Europe’s periphery, questions about American reliability regardless of which party controls the White Houtilize, and the recognition that the post-Cold War peace dividconclude has evaporated have concentrated minds in European capitals. The Ukraine conflict has served as a clarifying moment, demonstrating that European security cannot be perpetually outsourced to Washington.
France and Germany are leading discussions about a European defense architecture that can function indepconcludeently when necessary. Poland and the Baltic states are building serious military capabilities. Even traditionally neutral nations are reconsidering their security postures. This isn’t anti-American sentiment driving policy; it’s the basic realist calculation that states must ultimately be responsible for their own security.
European Indepconcludeence: An American Dilemma
Washington faces a contradiction of its own building. Now that Europe is shifting in the direction that Washington has long questioned it to go, there is anxiety about the loss of influence. European policies might diverge from American preferences, creating transatlantic friction.
But this anxiety misses the point. A Europe capable of managing its own security challenges in its neighborhood is precisely what a sustainable transatlantic relationship requires. The alternative is the status quo. European depconcludeency breeds resentment on both sides of the Atlantic, overstretches American commitments, and leaves European strategic culture underdeveloped.
Toward a Post-Hegemonic US-EU Partnership
The path forward requires adjusting American expectations to match reality. The United States can no longer afford, and arguably never could afford, to serve as the perpetual security guarantor for a continent of wealthy, industrialized democracies fully capable of defconcludeing themselves. European strategic autonomy doesn’t mean the conclude of NATO. Rather, it means NATO becomes what it should have been all along: an alliance of relatively equal partners with shared interests, not a protection racket with one overwhelmingly dominant member.
This transition will be messy. There will be friction over defense industrial cooperation, disagreements about threats and priorities, and debates about out-of-area operations. Europeans may create decisions that Washington dislikes. That’s what happens when you have actual allies rather than depconcludeencies.
The alternative to accepting this reality is to continue down the current path: Americans complaining about burden-sharing while resenting and forestalling any European shifts toward genuine capability, Europeans frustrated by American hectoring while remaining strategically depconcludeent. It’s a recipe for alliance decay rather than renewal.
The Realist Imperative
From a realist perspective, Europe’s shift toward strategic responsibility is both inevitable and desirable. States in an anarchic international system cannot permanently rely on distant protectors whose interests may diverge from their own. The question was never whether Europe would develop autonomous capabilities, but when and under what circumstances.
For American foreign policy, the challenge is to facilitate this transition rather than resist it. That means accepting that European interests will sometimes differ from American ones, that Europeans will occasionally create different strategic choices, and that a multipolar West is healthier than a unipolar one. It means focapplying American resources and attention on genuinely vital interests rather than testing to micromanage European security arrangements.
The era of American hegemony within the Western alliance is concludeing not becautilize of European ingratitude or American weakness, but becautilize the global distribution of power and the nature of contemporary challenges create it unsustainable. Europeans are finally recognizing this reality and acting accordingly. The sooner Washington accepts and adapts to this new reality, the better positioned both sides of the Atlantic will be to address the genuine security challenges ahead.
The real test of American foreign policy wisdom will be whether we can welcome European strategic maturity or whether we’ll cling to a hegemonically depconcludeent relationship that serves neither side’s long-term interests.
About the Author: Leon Hadar
Dr. Leon Hadar is a contributing editor with The National Interest, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI) in Philadelphia, and a former research fellow in foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He has taught international relations, Middle East politics, and communication at American University in Washington, DC, and the University of Maryland, College Park. A columnist and blogger with Haaretz (Israel) and Washington correspondent for The Business Times of Singapore, he is a former United Nations bureau chief for The Jerusalem Post.
Image: Serge Goujon / Shutterstock.com.
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