Europe can’t count on the US to be its bodyguard. That’s great for its defense companies

A stark new reality in Europe — that its long-time ally and security guarantor, the United States, may not come to its rescue in a future war — has set the stage for a faster ramp-up in military spending on the continent.

A stark new reality in Europe — that its long-time ally and security guarantor, the United States, may not come to its rescue in a future war — has set the stage for a faster ramp-up in military spending on the continent. And in anticipation of higher revenues for European defense companies, investors have poured into their stocks, pushing a key index to an all-time high this week. The US held talks with Russia this week to explore ending the war in Ukraine, three years after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Neither Kyiv nor its European allies were invited to take part. “I’ve been in and around defense for a long time, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Trevor Taylor, a director at the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, a London-based think tank, said of the cracks in the transatlantic alliance. The sidelining of the European Union and the United Kingdom — who have funneled more than $160 billion in aid and military equipment to Ukraine since February 2022 — has fueled fears that the region can no longer rely on the US to backstop its security. It’s a role Washington has played for decades, stationing troops and nuclear weapons on European soil to help deter aggressors, Taylor noted.