Since the 1990s, the United States has been drawing down its forces in Europe under the assessment that the security situation on the Continent was largely and increasingly benign. Indeed, after the Balkan conflict, from an operational point of view, much of the military infrastructure, force structure, and alliance effort was increasingly in support of non-European military conflicts and operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and Africa.The US strategic focus shifted to giving primacy to Asia in January 2012 with the issuance of the Defense Strategic Guidance. This “pivot” or “rebalancing” was justified, in part, on the grounds that …read more
Source: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research