Published February 28, 2025
President Trump’s recent actions regarding Russia and Ukraine, coupled with Vice President Vance’s Munich speech, have left many traditional transatlanticists at home and abroad worried that the United States is abandoning its traditional NATO allies. Friday’s heated exchange in the Oval Office during which Trump and Vance publicly scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky only heightened those concerns.
NATO’s American friends would reassure its European ones if they would pass a congressional resolution reaffirming American commitment to this nation’s treaty obligations and continued deployment of troops within NATO’s European borders.
NATO has been the linchpin of American security since its creation in 1949. Formed to contain the Soviet Union’s global aspirations, it helped to keep the peace throughout the Cold War. Knowing that Europe and Canada were doing their parts for the common defense also allowed America to build further alliances in Asia, the Middle East, and elsewhere to keep the balance of power from tilting against the West.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
