Trump Destroyed NATO — Now Europe's Secret Military Alliance Excludes America | Robert Reich

Trump Destroyed NATO — Now Europe's Secret Military Alliance Excludes America | Robert Reich

Something unprecedented happened in European defense planning last month—and almost no American officials seem to understand what it means. While Washington continues to treat NATO as if it functions the way it did in 1975, major European powers have quietly built parallel military structures that operate without American involvement, American oversight, or American veto power.

This isn't about European countries leaving NATO or abandoning the transatlantic alliance. This is about something far more strategic: Europe building the capacity to act independently when American leadership becomes unreliable, unpredictable, or absent altogether.

For 75 years, the assumption underlying European security policy was simple: America leads, Europe follows, and Russia responds. NATO was structured around American military dominance, American command systems, and American strategic priorities. European countries contributed resources and troops, but the fundamental decisions about war and peace, engagement and escalation, were made in Washington.

But Trump's repeated threats to abandon NATO, combined with his obvious affection for authoritarian leaders and his willingness to undermine democratic allies, convinced European leaders that American protection could no longer be assumed. So they began building alternatives. Not dramatic public alternatives that would trigger American retaliation, but quiet, bureaucratic, administrative alternatives that give Europe independent capacity to defend itself when America is unwilling or unable to do so.

In this video, I break down how Europe has constructed what amounts to a shadow NATO—complete with integrated command structures, shared intelligence systems, and coordinated procurement programs that function without American participation. I explain why American defense companies are losing contracts they once took for granted, and what this means for American influence in the world's most important military alliance.

I've studied how alliances adapt when trust breaks down between major partners. I've watched how institutional arrangements that seem permanent can be quietly replaced when political leaders lose confidence in their reliability. And I've seen how quickly strategic relationships can shift when countries conclude that their security depends on reducing rather than increasing their dependence on unreliable partners.