I get that, but that assumes the US still feels the need to use NATO to maintain this relationship. If the US plans to deal with Russia directly, then Europe becomes largely irrelevant. US and Russia will just carve up spheres of influence in Europe instead.
The relevance of Europe stemmed from USSR being the main adversary of the US. Today, it’s clearly China and the US is very openly saying they want to pivot to Asia. In this scenario, normalizing relations with Russia and pulling out of Europe makes perfect sense. The US can’t be everywhere at once, and they have to prioritize now that they’re dealing with multiple peer adversaries in form or Russia and China. Europe simply doesn’t have the relevance that it used to.
I get that, but that assumes the US still feels the need to use NATO to maintain this relationship. If the US plans to deal with Russia directly, then Europe becomes largely irrelevant. US and Russia will just carve up spheres of influence in Europe instead.
The relevance of Europe stemmed from USSR being the main adversary of the US. Today, it’s clearly China and the US is very openly saying they want to pivot to Asia. In this scenario, normalizing relations with Russia and pulling out of Europe makes perfect sense. The US can’t be everywhere at once, and they have to prioritize now that they’re dealing with multiple peer adversaries in form or Russia and China. Europe simply doesn’t have the relevance that it used to.