President Trump is reportedly considering abandoning America’s longstanding role commanding NATO forces as Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR), changing the U.S. combatant command structure, and canceling modernization plans for U.S. Forces Japan. While it’s true that Europe needs to step up to the plate on its own defense needs, abandoning the SACEUR position would place U.S. troops under foreign command, give Washington less leverage over our allies, and weaken deterrence. How can Trump better advance his goal of boosting European defense spending? And where can the Defense Department make cuts that bolster deterrence?

Kori Schake is a senior fellow and the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. Before joining AEI, Kori was the deputy director-general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London; a professor at West Point, University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University; and worked in the State Department, National Security Council, and Department of Defense. She is the author of Safe Passage: The Transition from British to American Hegemony, and a contributing writer at the Atlantic, War on the Rocks, and Bloomberg. Her upcoming book is The State and the Soldier: The History of Civil Military Relations in America.

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