How to defend the west
Where is the Trump administration headed in its policies toward Russia and Europe? Several markers have been laid down in recent months.
First, the president delivered a forceful defense of the Western idea in Warsaw last summer, while affirming America’s commitment to NATO under Article 5. Liberals informed us that a verbal defense of Western civilization is now socially unacceptable, but most conservatives liked it.
Second, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson delivered a welcome address on strengthening Western alliances, at the Wilson Center in November, followed by repeat visits to Europe.
Third, the administration began staffing up with some capable Europe experts as political appointees. The former head of the Center for European Policy Analysis, Wess Mitchell, arrived as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs in October. Mitchell co-authored a recent book, The Unquiet Frontier — a favorite of H. R. McMaster’s — arguing that American alliances around the perimeters of Russia, China, and Iran should be bolstered. Mitchell’s co-author, Jakub Grygiel, manages European matters at the State Department’s Office of Policy Planning, with planning director Brian Hook.
The administration’s Europe policy, as it has emerged, appears to have several key components:
- A reaffirmation of NATO as the heart of the West’s defense
- Asking European allies to shoulder more of the burden for their own military protection
- Working with smaller Central European NATO allies, rather than against them
- Maintaining and expanding a U.S. strategic presence in Poland and the Baltics
- Encouraging alternative energy supplies to European allies, in order to wean them off excessive dependence on Russian natural gas
- To that end, opposition toward the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project connecting Russia and Germany
- Negotiations over Ukraine to enforce the 2014 Minsk agreement
- Boosting military aid to Ukraine, through the sale of U.S. weapons, allowing its government to better fight off Russian-backed separatists
- Taking the position that EU relations with member European states is a matter for those states to resolve, without American interference
- Increased U.S. military spending, in part to make more credible America’s strategic position overseas, not least with regard to Russia
- Urging European allies to reconsider and help renegotiate the deeply flawed 2015 Iran nuclear deal
- An unapologetic defense of the idea of the West as a civilizational legacy worth defending
Περισσότερα εδώ:
Πηγή: www.aei.org
