Europe Builds Post-US Defense Strategy as Germany Signals Resolve With 5,000 Troops in Lithuania
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 4
Europe Builds Post-US Defense Strategy as Germany Signals Resolve With 5,000 Troops in Lithuania
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 4
Summary
European governments are accelerating plans for a more autonomous defense posture as Russia’s threat grows and confidence in US military backing weakens under Donald Trump’s second term.
Nato 3.0 envisions Europeans carrying far more of the alliance’s conventional burden, but the shift also risks weakening Nato overall if Washington stays formally inside the bloc while stepping back in practice.
Germany’s plan to permanently station a 5,000-strong brigade in Lithuania is cited as evidence that frontline and major Western states could still unite militarily if Russia attacked a Nato member.
That unity may not solve the core problem: a US refusal to respond could effectively break Article 5, while a longer-term European takeover of Nato would likely trigger clashes with Washington over command, markets and priorities.
As insurance, European-led 'coalitions of the willing' are gaining traction around Ukraine, Greenland and Hormuz, with advocates reviving a European security council to give those ad hoc groupings political direction and command.