The 'Asia First' policy argument that the U.S. should focus entirely on China and let Europe handle Russia has intellectual appeal but suffers from serious liabilities: even if European NATO members doubled military spending, it wouldn't solve how to sustain Ukraine for 3-4 years because European defense industrial bases cannot do that, and it wouldn't address Russia's hyperactive revisionism and risky sabotage/subversion efforts within the West.

causalpending

Speaker

Hal Brands

Evidence Quote

even if in some magical world the European part of NATO was to double military spending today that wouldn't solve the problem of how you sustain Ukraine for the next three or four years because European Defence industrial bases just St in a position to do that

Source

'We’re Living In a Pre-War World. Great Power War Is No Longer Unthinkable.' | Ep. 49 Hal BrandsDecoding Geopolitics Podcast with Dominik Presl
Created: 8/11/2026, 7:56:42 AM

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