Strategic Escape: How Europe Can Secretly Prepare to Leave NATO

How to Build an Unstoppable European Military (And Keep the U.S. in the Dark)

On November 13, 2018, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood before the European Parliament and delivered a speech that caught everyone off guard. She had just endorsed French President Emmanuel Macron’s idea of a European army.

“Jean-Claude Juncker already said that a common European army would show the world that there would never again be war in Europe,” she declared.

It was not the first time such an idea had surfaced. Every time Europe was reminded of its military dependence on the United States, the same conversation would begin. Europe needs its own army. And yet, time and time again, it led nowhere.

This time, however, things are different.

Three years into a war on Europe’s eastern front, NATO — the alliance meant to safeguard European security — has proven incapable of decisive action. Its leader, the President of the United States, echoes Kremlin propaganda rather than holding the aggressor accountable. Washington’s unpredictability is no longer a diplomatic inconvenience — it is a strategic liability. Europe cannot afford to gamble its security on the shifting winds of American politics…