NATO’s Force Generation and Deployment

Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Allies agreed that NATO had three core tasks: collective defense, crisis management, and cooperative security.  Of these core tasks, collective defense was considered to be the first among equals. Allies were reminded of this after Russians took Crimea and drove west into Ukraine. Suddenly, crisis management and cooperative security were put on the backburner and all efforts went into strengthening collective defense to deter further Russian aggression. Most Allies, especially from the frontline states, urged that in order to deter and defend against the Russian threat, more U.S. troops were required in Europe. However, to the Trump administration, and to a great many Democrats too, the answer is not more U.S. troops in Europe but more NATO troops from Europe.