This time around the electric shock hit hard. Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea proved insufficient to reenergize the transatlantic alliance still heavily engaged in Afghanistan. Six years later, the violence of Russia’s aggression right when “Atlanticists” are back in the White House and State Department convinced NATO to rekindle its founding mission: collective defense against military attack. As a result, the drawdown of US troops in Europe, which started under Obama and continued under Trump, finally gave way to reinforcement.
