If not now, when is a good time for a US troop withdrawal from Europe? responsiblestatecraft.org

Stephen Wertheim, Director of Research and Policy at the Quincy Institute

Eurasia Group president Ian Bremmer says my criticism of the U.S. role in NATO “misses the mark,” arguing that a U.S.-led NATO remains “critically important” to the United States. Readers should read both pieces — here’s mine — to decide for themselves. I just hope Bremmer will expand on his closing remark that “right now” is not the time for the United States to begin to reduce its military role in Europe.

If not now, when? Under what plausible future circumstances does he think U.S. forces should ever pull back? Or should the United States make itself the dominant military power in Europe in perpetuity?

In the 1990s, when there was next to no risk of major war with a reeling Russia, America insisted on remaining the chief, forward-deployed power in Europe. Decades later, U.S.-backed NATO expansion has pushed so far as to help provoke conflict with Russia in Ukraine and Georgia. What are we waiting for — relations to get so poor as to bring America and Russia to the brink of major war? Läs artikel