It’s not nice to hear what’s said about any of us in private. People sometimes express very blunt opinions.
So it was with Vice President JD Vance’s comments on the old continent in private Signal app messages accidentally given to the Atlantic magazine’s editor-in-chief and published on March 24, where terms such as allied “free loading” were bandied around. This very much fits with Vice President Vance’s critique of Europe. However, he and like-minded Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth nonetheless privately recognized the continuing importance of protecting US and other trade through aggressive action in the Bab-al-Mandeb strait into the Red Sea.
The administration has few vocal transatlanticists, and the major foreign policy debates between Trump’s confidants and policy planners range from Asia First strategists, Western Hemisphere retrenchment advocates, and conservative isolationists.
All of which underlines that Europe must not only consider what the continent’s security looks like without a US commitment to resisting Russian aggression, but also think about its own role in protecting the global commons.
Right now, the Trump Administration is responding more directly to the threat posed by Houthi attacks on international shipping, finally targeting the archers rather than focusing on missile interception and denial as the Biden administration did. It’s frankly a more serious strategy, both tactically and economically: rather than expending costly missile interceptors, US strikes have “targeted training sites, unmanned aerial vehicle infrastructure, weapons manufacturing capabilities and weapons storage facilities,” according to USAF Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, Director for Operations for the Joint Staff.
These new strikes are supposedly part of the coalition effort Operation Prosperity Guardian, but NATO member participation so far has been unimpressive. Other than the UK, which joined US air attacks on Houthi targets last year, the other members are Canada, Denmark, Greece, Finland, and Norway.
Canada has sent unspecified support vehicles and just three staff officers. Norway pledged 10 staff officers but no vessels. Denmark sent the frigate HDMS Inver Huitfeldt in December 2023, but a weapons system failure during a Houthi drone attack led to her returning home. The Hellenic Navy sent two frigates, while the Netherlands provided a frigate and support ship. New NATO members Finland and Sweden sent naval personnel.
The Royal Navy, still the largest fleet in Europe by displacement, sent two destroyers and two frigates, and the Royal Air Force provided the 903 Expeditionary Air Wing led by Typhoon combat aircraft and Voyager tankers.
Read the rest at CEPA.
Michael DiCianna is a research assistant at Yorktown Institute.
