WTH? A European Supreme Allied Commander of NATO? Kori Schake Explains

President Trump is reportedly considering abandoning America’s
longstanding role commanding NATO forces as Supreme Allied
Commander Europe (SACEUR), changing the U.S. combatant command
structure, and canceling modernization plans for U.S. Forces
Japan. While it’s true that Europe needs to step up to the plate
on its own defense needs, abandoning the SACEUR position would
place U.S. troops under foreign command, give Washington less
leverage over our allies, and weaken deterrence. How can Trump
better advance his goal of boosting European defense spending?
And where can the Defense Department make cuts that bolster
deterrence?


Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and
defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
Before joining AEI, Kori was the deputy director-general of the
International Institute for Strategic Studies in London; a
professor at West Point, University of Maryland, and Johns
Hopkins University; and worked in the State Department, National
Security Council, and Department of Defense. She is the author of
Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony,
and a contributing writer at the Atlantic, War on the Rocks, and
Bloomberg. Her upcoming book is The State and the Soldier: The
History of Civil Military Relations in America.


Read the transcript here.


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