Elbridge Colby is Right: Europe Should Focus on Europe

May 16, 2025

The Pentagon is pushing the British military to focus more of its attention and resources in the Euro-Atlantic, not in East Asia, the Financial Times reported recently. The policy’s purported architect is U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, who has been a strong supporter of America’s European allies increasing their military spending and doing more for their own defense, especially in light of the Ukraine War and increased concern regarding Russian aggression.

This policy marks a sharp break from the Biden administration, which sought to link America’s Indo-Pacific and NATO allies under the presumption that an enhanced European military presence in Asia would help counter Chinese belligerence in the region. Reacting to the FT’s reporting, Ely Ratner, the Biden administration’s top Pentagon official for the Indo-Pacific region, suggested that Europe staying actively engaged in Asia would be “good for deterrence and good for Taiwan’s defense and resilience” and is “something to be encouraged.”

But Colby is correct in both his analysis of the situation and the prescriptions recommended. On the whole, America’s allies in Europe currently do not have the resources necessary to undertake meaningful deployments outside of their principal theater. Furthermore, when they do undertake such operations, they are not contributing to regional deterrence in any significant manner and, instead, are exacerbating an already tenuous regional equilibrium.

Since President Barack Obama declared a pivot to Asia in the early 2010s, Europeans have been fearful that increased U.S. engagement in East Asia would be at their expense, given their underinvestment in defense and overreliance on America’s strategic leadership. By attempting to step up their own engagement in the Indo-Pacific and increase confrontational rhetoric and trade policies toward China, the Europeans are seeking to ensure continued U.S. support by demonstrating that they can help the U.S. counter its “pacing threat.”

Full piece in The American Conservative