What happens to Europe’s security when the US no longer guarantees it?
In episode five of Across the Pond, Verena Khal and Dan Krause speak with Leonard A. Schütte (Europe Fellow at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) about NATO, Europe’s security responsibilities and a changing transatlantic alliance.
They discuss Europe’s reliance on US guarantees; burden-sharing within NATO; credible European capabilities and strategic autonomy; and striking a balance between deterrence and the social and economic costs of rearmament.
Key topics
- Vulnerability: It will take years for European investment to translate into capabilities, creating risks that Russia could exploit.
- NATO 3.0: US demands reflect geopolitical change, resource constraints and a reassessment of America’s role.
- Post-transatlantic era? Can European defence create a more balanced partnership as US guarantees recede?
- Defence and autonomy: Europe needs coordinated procurement, industrial cooperation, leadership, its own strategy and fewer dependencies on the US—not simply more spending or a copy of US capabilities.
- Security at what cost? Can Europe deter Russia whilst managing the social, economic and political costs of rearmament, without escalation?
- The transatlantic treasure: Trump’s first visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels, NATO diplomacy and why Europe’s predicament may have been foreseeable.
Can Europe become an independent security actor, or will fragmentation, military dependencies and weak leadership leave it unprotected and without its own foreign policy?
Guests & Hosts
- Leonard A. Schütte is a Carnegie Europe Fellow specialising in European defence and US strategy; he was previously a Belfer Centre Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.
- Dan Krause heads the Department of European and International Politics at BKHS, Hamburg.
- Verna Kahl conducts research into international law, human rights and climate justice at the University of Hamburg.