Does Europe still need the United States?

In contemporary Europe, America feels like an afterthought

A section of the East Side Gallery in Berlin, the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still in existence, painted by artists in 1990. Photo by the author, August 21, 2022.

I’ve visited four European countries in the past four months: Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland. I’ve had conversations with policymakers, scholars, students, corp…