The Future of American Landpower: Does Forward Presence Still Matter? The Case of the Army in Europe
Abstract
For at least 50 years, many American politicians, scholars, and observers of European affairs have complained about perceived inequitable burdensharing in NATO. If only the United States would withdraw its military forces from Europe, our European allies would pick up the slack and start paying more for their own defense. The decision to station U.S. forces in Europe during peacetime was in substance and style a major commitment to European defense. By the Vietnam era though, as American commitments in Southeast Asia grew significantly, in part at the expense of commitments in Europe, many in the United States became critical of Europe's perceived unwillingness to shoulder more of the defense burden in Europe. Since then, similar burdensharing complaints have been lodged against America's closest allies, with most arguing that the United States ought to use the withdrawal of its forward-based forces as a political tool to compel greater defense spending on the part of European NATO members. In fact, since the end of the Cold War, the American military presence in Europe has dramatically downsized, from a high point of over a quarter-million Soldiers down to roughly 42,000 today. Ironically though, European defense spending has actually fallen for the most part during the same period. The author argues that the primary purpose of U.S. forces in Europe today is to build interoperability and military capability within and among America's most capable and most likely future coalition partners through security cooperation activities like exercises and training events. This shift in purpose means that U.S. force presence in Europe is no longer a useful tool in extracting a greater commitment to increased defense spending on the part of America's European allies. Nonetheless, through security cooperation, America's forward-based military forces in Europe play a critical role today in shaping the capabilities of allied military forces.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA569664
Entities
People
- John R. Deni
Organizations
- United States Army War College