In my opinion, the US is slowly forcing Europe to rethink its overall alliance with them, especially under a President who is maybe the worst foreign politician, even after Bush, because he manages to show basically every ally or partner that they can kiss their ass goodbye.
And Europe is reacting. France is strengthening its ties to the Maghreb and north African states again, Germany plans on increasing it's defense spending the first time since 1990, and from Top-Tier politicians the Idea of combined armed European Forces is voiced more and more.
Additionally, The EU is actively charming the non-NATO-members like Finland into participation, and with its East-Europe policy adds more strategic debt and more economic powerhouses in waiting to their territory
Ironically, the Russian actions in Ukraine force Europe to stand closer together, and may as well lead to even tighter integration.
Additionally, if you take the military capability of France, GB, Germany, Italy and Finland, The necessity for an American "Proctection" is scarecely needed.
If you add the extremely capable european defence industry, which in big parts was crippled by the "Standardization" enforced through the NATO leading members to buy US defence technology, and the well-educated "Mittelstand", an increasing US-Isolationism would only hurt in the short run.
As much as I would like it to be different, we are still at least one or two decades away from an effective European deterrent against Russian aggression. If only because of our inability to coordinate decisive responses and our unwillingness to pool military resources in a European army, rather than split them into national militaries with incredibly amounts of redundancy and ineffectiveness.
Yes, but these hurdles to overcome are political, not technological or financial. And for that period, the biggest deterrent against Russia is Russia itself, because they are militarily, as a former german Chancellor once said "The Republic of Upper Volta with nuclear Warheads"
And Europe is reacting. France is strengthening its ties to the Maghreb and north African states again, Germany plans on increasing it's defense spending the first time since 1990, and from Top-Tier politicians the Idea of combined armed European Forces is voiced more and more. Additionally, The EU is actively charming the non-NATO-members like Finland into participation, and with its East-Europe policy adds more strategic debt and more economic powerhouses in waiting to their territory
Ironically, the Russian actions in Ukraine force Europe to stand closer together, and may as well lead to even tighter integration.
Additionally, if you take the military capability of France, GB, Germany, Italy and Finland, The necessity for an American "Proctection" is scarecely needed. If you add the extremely capable european defence industry, which in big parts was crippled by the "Standardization" enforced through the NATO leading members to buy US defence technology, and the well-educated "Mittelstand", an increasing US-Isolationism would only hurt in the short run.