Deep Dish on Global Affairs · The Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Can Europe Stand Without the US?

February 12, 2026·29 min·2 clips

Vice President J.D. Vance's Munich speech challenged Europe to step up as America focuses elsewhere—what does that mean for the alliance today?

Europe's options do not sound roomy here. The cold open puts the continent in a hard spot: war in Ukraine, weak growth, internal strain, and a United States that looks less clearly committed. Munich supplies the tension. J.D. Vance's earlier burden-sharing argument hangs over the room as Europeans and Americans return under different assumptions. The host keeps the question practical: is this alliance stress, or something more durable? Britain gives the episode its sharpest test. The host points back to a United Kingdom that has long prized the closest possible relationship with Washington, even when that limited independent European positioning. The guest's answer is plain. Britain has accepted that Europeans relied too heavily on the United States, but it has not really changed its view. Burden sharing still matters, and London reads Washington's complaint as partly fair. That means higher defense spending and more force presence on NATO's eastern flank. Still, wanting independence does not magically build the organization or timeline needed to replace American power. Defense is only part of it. Britain still has working military channels with the United States, even through political tension. Technology tightens the bind further. London is putting its eggs in the U.S. tech basket and wants American foreign direct investment, while treating China as the only credible alternative. Paris and Berlin do not see it the same way. So Europe comes off less like one strategic actor than a group of governments under the same pressure, but moving by different instincts. The ending lands soberly: Europe is being asked what it can offer before it has agreed what it can actually do.

As heard by us

A sober look at whether Europe can shoulder more of its own defense.

Deep Dish on Global Affairs treats Europe's defense problem as an active policy fight, not an abstract theme. Leslie Vincimori uses Munich to work through burden sharing, the war in Ukraine, and the pressure low growth and domestic strain are putting on collective defense.

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Can Europe defend itself if Washington keeps stepping back?

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