The Stalled Vision: How NATO’s Leadership Hinders the Development of a European Defense Pillar

In 2024, Max Bergmann argued that NATO missed an opportunity to transform itself by suggesting the alliance’s leadership should facilitate a strong European pillar through structural reforms in European institutions. Two years later, we invited Max to revisit his thesis. Image: The White House via Wikimedia Commons

In 2024, you proposed that NATO’s leadership should facilitate a European pillar. Two years later, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told the European Parliament that anyone who thinks Europe can defend itself without the United States is dreaming, drawing public pushback from European leaders. Does this rift suggest NATO’s leadership is actively blocking progress on the very pillar you believe it should be building? Secretary General Mark Rutte is holding Europe back. He is obstructing NATO and Europe from seriously grappling with the unfortunate reality that Europe might have to defend itself without the United States. There are some informal discussions happening at NATO over coffee, beers, and dinner. But Rutte has stopped Europe and NATO from coming up with a clear transition plan to create a European pillar. The fear on his part, and NATO more broadly, is that if Europe comes up with a plan to take charge of its own defense, the United States will embrace it and leave. Rutte’s goal is to keep the “Americans in” and is working to thwart the Pentagon’s efforts to “burden shift.” He’s playing a double game with the Trump administration, but it looks like the Pentagon is buying it.

This calls into question, though, the utility of NATO to European security. The only plausible way there is a war between NATO and Russia is if the United States is not there. That’s when there is real danger to Europe. Yet, NATO cannot plan or prepare for that contingency because the United States is still in. All NATO

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