Vice President JD Vance has caused a firestorm in recent weeks after lecturing European leaders at the Munich Security Conference and then threatening to withdraw American troops from Germany in retaliation for Germany’s supposed suppression of free speech. Elsewhere, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. would no longer be “primarily focused on the security of Europe.”
Hegseth’s line echoed, in some ways, Barack Obama’s aspired “pivot” to the Pacific. But prior administrations, including Trump’s first term, largely failed to make good on those aspirations.
With the U.S. having long served as the primary security guarantor and economic hegemon across the globe, a meaningful retraction of power was often deemed too risky or too destabilizing to pursue. Trump, however, seems poised to follow through this time around.
Still, there is a responsible way to cut back the U.S.’s burdensome overseas security commitments, one that works to minimize these risks and ensure vital interests while withdrawing. Trump is not taking this approach.
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