Michael, "NATO lives on" is doing a lot of work here. An alliance whose success metric has dropped to "the American president did not detonate it this week" is not living. It is on a ventilator.
The behavioral read is simpler than the diplomatic one. Deterrence is not a treaty text. It is a belief state in an adversary's head about what a specific man will do at 3am. Article 5 was never the guarantee. The credibility of the signatory was. Once Tallinn stops believing, the clause is furniture. Nobody in Narva is reading the Washington Treaty. They are reading Trump's phone logs.
The €70 billion is real and it matters. But notice what it actually signals: Europe pricing in American absence and paying the premium itself. That is not alliance cohesion. That is a hedge. Hedges are rational. They are also how alliances end, quietly, one budget line at a time, long before anyone withdraws from anything.
You call a no-drama summit a win. I would call it evidence that the bar has been recalibrated so far down that the recalibration is itself the story. Institutions do not usually die by exit. They die when everyone starts behaving as if the institution were already gone, and then one day it is.
Ankara was not a victory. It was a stay of execution. Worth having. Worth naming correctly.
I'd like to thank Mr. McFaul for allowing comments & not locking everything. Am I the only one who thinks the EU & NATO might actually benefit by being more independent from U.S.
NATO’s survival after the Cold War shows that security alliances are not only built around one specific enemy; they are also built around shared values, trust, and collective responsibility.
From my perspective as someone who has observed international security cooperation closely, alliances succeed when they combine military capability with political unity and respect for the rule of law. The future of NATO will depend not only on its strength, but also on the commitment of its members to democratic institutions and common security.
Europe needs to man up and stop quaking in their boots about the Russian paper bear mired in the Ukrainian quagmire. Russia has one sixth the GDP, a third the population, and two thirds the military manpower of NATO excluding the US. If Russia can’t defeat Ukraine how is going to take on Europe? If Europe wants to defang Russia it should pour more resources into Ukraine to the point of Russian exhaustion, killing three birds with one stone: Ukraine wins, Europe is rid of the Russian menace, and free of American domination.
PS: President Reagan showed us how to do it. Use the advantage in economic power to engage Russia in an arms race it can’t win (remember “Star Wars”?) and they will fold.
I never did feel comfortable accepting for myself the label of "progressive." Something, just undefinable, set my teeth on edge. I am a liberal. A New Deal liberal. That is a label I like. A lot. It is possible that progressives are just not viewing the past 100 years with clarity? It seems insanity that any thoughtful American would not support NATO. For me, this support is baked in. It is in my bones. And when NATO is threatened (especially, not by its adversaries but by my own country) I tend to become wild. It makes me further doubt our country's education system. Duh.
Another Left-its viewpoint. Get real. Europe without everything the US provides isn’t Europe, it’s an extension of the middle-east and Russian aggression. One of the biggest things American contributes is TOURISM. NOT to be ignored…..but if we stopped coming, how would the tourism sector survive?? With the Chinese? Get real.
Yet, Macron’s pre-2022 diagnosis on NATO remains true : brain dead. Whatever the quality of the military cooperation, and it is mostly excellent, the USA-NATO relationship at the political level is brain dead. No shared values. No mutual respect nor trust. And brain dead is an unrecoverable condition. However stubborn and hypocritical some Europeans may be in refusing to acknowledge it, and to fully commit to building a strong, fully sovereign, European defense alliance, by Europeans, for Europeans. It’s time we Europeans became adults. And stopped being occupied by US boots on our homeland. After all, WW II ended 81 years ago…
In this time we become grateful for what we can get.
At the same time, the clear-eyed evaluation - and willingness to plan for the longer-term, of our NATO partners is a relief. Hard times are here.
Fortunately, hard times have already arrived in Moscow where Putin is increasingly seen to have broken his compact with the Russian people: Do whatever you like, but do not make us uncomfortable.
I've been to Moscow twice. First as part of a US diplomatic mission pre-Soviet break-up and later as a faculty wife during a Fulbright sabbatical in Russia. Two golden tickets.
The cultural access and even connections with Russians (some obviously with the KGB during the first time) were glorious. During the second time there was a lot yearning for the "good old days" by husband's colleagues met through the International Law Center.
Every time, I came away with the constant inner monologue: This is a cruel society covered by a thin layer of civility. On an overnight train to Kyiv I couldn't sleep so look over moonlit fields, blessing ancestors who got themselves out of this cruel place and to America. I remain ever grateful.
And now, here's Here's where I find some realistic hope -
Yes, it is sad that enduring Trump as our president means, at best, we can only hope for no more embarrassment or aggressive comments from him on the world stage.
Giving Ukraine permission to produce their own patriot missiles is a little fruitless at this point, knowing that they take a long time to produce. I think in Trump‘s little spinning brain he’s thinking he will keep Ukraine busy on producing patriot missiles, and take time away from them producing more successful drone operations? Is he really giving them anything other than a distraction?
What NATO should do is recruit and train Turkish, Syrian, Moroccan, Afghan and African economic migrants into the military to defend liberal democracy and the rules based order from the Russians and European populists.
Your article is just like the rest of the TDS crowd. See Trump for who he is: a highly successful man in every way. Yes, EVERY. Not a pacifist, but he hates war and will do anything to avoid it. He is OUR, Americans very best friend, he sees the world and the intentions of the worst as a force to be eliminated, but he needs some intelligent understanding on Americans’ part.Get over gas prices for a few months. Small beer compared to what happened in Iran for 47 years. Hoover can be incomparable, but listen to VDH and Condi and Nialll-Aayan. They’re realists and not compromised by stupid prejudices of DT.
Michael, "NATO lives on" is doing a lot of work here. An alliance whose success metric has dropped to "the American president did not detonate it this week" is not living. It is on a ventilator.
The behavioral read is simpler than the diplomatic one. Deterrence is not a treaty text. It is a belief state in an adversary's head about what a specific man will do at 3am. Article 5 was never the guarantee. The credibility of the signatory was. Once Tallinn stops believing, the clause is furniture. Nobody in Narva is reading the Washington Treaty. They are reading Trump's phone logs.
The €70 billion is real and it matters. But notice what it actually signals: Europe pricing in American absence and paying the premium itself. That is not alliance cohesion. That is a hedge. Hedges are rational. They are also how alliances end, quietly, one budget line at a time, long before anyone withdraws from anything.
You call a no-drama summit a win. I would call it evidence that the bar has been recalibrated so far down that the recalibration is itself the story. Institutions do not usually die by exit. They die when everyone starts behaving as if the institution were already gone, and then one day it is.
Ankara was not a victory. It was a stay of execution. Worth having. Worth naming correctly.
🐌Johan
I'd like to thank Mr. McFaul for allowing comments & not locking everything. Am I the only one who thinks the EU & NATO might actually benefit by being more independent from U.S.
I hope so. Europe is history without the US. I live here…..they’re wearing blindfolds.
Slava Ukraine!
NATO’s survival after the Cold War shows that security alliances are not only built around one specific enemy; they are also built around shared values, trust, and collective responsibility.
From my perspective as someone who has observed international security cooperation closely, alliances succeed when they combine military capability with political unity and respect for the rule of law. The future of NATO will depend not only on its strength, but also on the commitment of its members to democratic institutions and common security.
Europe needs to man up and stop quaking in their boots about the Russian paper bear mired in the Ukrainian quagmire. Russia has one sixth the GDP, a third the population, and two thirds the military manpower of NATO excluding the US. If Russia can’t defeat Ukraine how is going to take on Europe? If Europe wants to defang Russia it should pour more resources into Ukraine to the point of Russian exhaustion, killing three birds with one stone: Ukraine wins, Europe is rid of the Russian menace, and free of American domination.
PS: President Reagan showed us how to do it. Use the advantage in economic power to engage Russia in an arms race it can’t win (remember “Star Wars”?) and they will fold.
I never did feel comfortable accepting for myself the label of "progressive." Something, just undefinable, set my teeth on edge. I am a liberal. A New Deal liberal. That is a label I like. A lot. It is possible that progressives are just not viewing the past 100 years with clarity? It seems insanity that any thoughtful American would not support NATO. For me, this support is baked in. It is in my bones. And when NATO is threatened (especially, not by its adversaries but by my own country) I tend to become wild. It makes me further doubt our country's education system. Duh.
Another Left-its viewpoint. Get real. Europe without everything the US provides isn’t Europe, it’s an extension of the middle-east and Russian aggression. One of the biggest things American contributes is TOURISM. NOT to be ignored…..but if we stopped coming, how would the tourism sector survive?? With the Chinese? Get real.
Well, "living" in the same sense as a comatose patient is living. 🤷
Totally agree with your analysis and vision.
Yet, Macron’s pre-2022 diagnosis on NATO remains true : brain dead. Whatever the quality of the military cooperation, and it is mostly excellent, the USA-NATO relationship at the political level is brain dead. No shared values. No mutual respect nor trust. And brain dead is an unrecoverable condition. However stubborn and hypocritical some Europeans may be in refusing to acknowledge it, and to fully commit to building a strong, fully sovereign, European defense alliance, by Europeans, for Europeans. It’s time we Europeans became adults. And stopped being occupied by US boots on our homeland. After all, WW II ended 81 years ago…
How is the Islamic Republic of Japan doing?!?
In this time we become grateful for what we can get.
At the same time, the clear-eyed evaluation - and willingness to plan for the longer-term, of our NATO partners is a relief. Hard times are here.
Fortunately, hard times have already arrived in Moscow where Putin is increasingly seen to have broken his compact with the Russian people: Do whatever you like, but do not make us uncomfortable.
I've been to Moscow twice. First as part of a US diplomatic mission pre-Soviet break-up and later as a faculty wife during a Fulbright sabbatical in Russia. Two golden tickets.
The cultural access and even connections with Russians (some obviously with the KGB during the first time) were glorious. During the second time there was a lot yearning for the "good old days" by husband's colleagues met through the International Law Center.
Every time, I came away with the constant inner monologue: This is a cruel society covered by a thin layer of civility. On an overnight train to Kyiv I couldn't sleep so look over moonlit fields, blessing ancestors who got themselves out of this cruel place and to America. I remain ever grateful.
And now, here's Here's where I find some realistic hope -
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/world/europe/russia-moscow-ukraine-war.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
I would love to read your current, shrewd look at those Russians living now in Putin’s Russia.
IMPEACH trump NOW!!!!!
Yes, it is sad that enduring Trump as our president means, at best, we can only hope for no more embarrassment or aggressive comments from him on the world stage.
Michael unfortunately you are still viewing the world through your 🇺🇸virtual reality glasses!
The 🇺🇸 has 0 trust, & no one believes Trump is an aberration, it was in 2016 no more
Also you have proven your institutions are broken, because as the grift & devastation goes on he hasn't been removed!
The lack of constraints, makes your country untrustworthy!
Stop normalizing your corrupt system!
Giving Ukraine permission to produce their own patriot missiles is a little fruitless at this point, knowing that they take a long time to produce. I think in Trump‘s little spinning brain he’s thinking he will keep Ukraine busy on producing patriot missiles, and take time away from them producing more successful drone operations? Is he really giving them anything other than a distraction?
What NATO should do is recruit and train Turkish, Syrian, Moroccan, Afghan and African economic migrants into the military to defend liberal democracy and the rules based order from the Russians and European populists.
Your article is just like the rest of the TDS crowd. See Trump for who he is: a highly successful man in every way. Yes, EVERY. Not a pacifist, but he hates war and will do anything to avoid it. He is OUR, Americans very best friend, he sees the world and the intentions of the worst as a force to be eliminated, but he needs some intelligent understanding on Americans’ part.Get over gas prices for a few months. Small beer compared to what happened in Iran for 47 years. Hoover can be incomparable, but listen to VDH and Condi and Nialll-Aayan. They’re realists and not compromised by stupid prejudices of DT.