Europe’s Fate Is America’s Business

This article was originally published in First Things. 

In a second Trump term,” said former national security advisor John Bolton to the Washington Post almost exactly four years ago, “I think he may well have withdrawn from NATO.” The commentariat and their directorate had a field day with the observation—future MSNBC eminence Jen Psaki declared it “another reason the American people are grateful” the president was no longer in office—and it reinforced the narrative that Donald J. Trump was in fact intent upon abandoning the world’s most powerful military alliance and therefore the European continent.

Yet here we are, deep into a second Trump term, and not only has the United States not fulfilled that prophecy, it has doubled down on what is arguably the most consequential defense of Europe in generations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s defining address to the Munich Security Conference on February 14 struck at the heart of America’s commitment, declaring that the United States and Europe “are part of one civilization . . . forged by centuries of shared history, Christian faith, culture, heritage, language, ancestry, and the sacrifices our forefathers made together for the common civilization to which we have fallen heir.” The speech echoes Churchill in June 1940, as he warned the besieged Britons that “[u]pon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. . . . [I]f we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age.”

Read the rest of this article in First Things, available here.