The document, “Aligning global military posture with U.S. interests,” was written by Jennifer Kavanagh, director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates a foreign policy of restraint, and Dan Caldwell, a former senior adviser at the Defense Department and a veteran of the Iraq War.
But the authors argued that the U.S. military is overstretched and provides few benefits. “In an era of increasingly strict U.S. resource constraints, the United States cannot afford to maintain such a large global posture,” Kavanagh told Nikkei Asia.
For Europe, the authors propose reducing the overall military presence from the current 90,000 soldiers and airmen to around 60,000.
Kavanagh and Caldwell argue that Russia does not pose a significant conventional military threat to the U.S. and that the American presence in Europe—which has continuously grown since Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014—should return to the pre-Crimea conflict levels.
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