The alliance system is America's greatest strategic advantage, which it is now destroying with its own hands May 29, 2026 9:16 PM CT  Debates about NATO’s role and burden-sharing have been around since its founding. GOP presidential Donald Trump’s sharp criticisms of the Western Alliance are just the latest flare-up. But NATO endures because it is more than a simple coalition. It is a marriage built on the strongest of foundations: common values, a shared world-view and solidarity. the Allies demonstrated that solidarity by invoking Article 5 of the Washington Treaty for the first time in history in response to 9/11. Estonian troops fought alongside their American comrades in one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan for 10 years. Alliances in the Indo-Pacific and NATO in Europe provide the United States with global reach, shared military and financial burdens, and critical basing access that no single nation can match. |