Four years ago, it would have been hard to believe that U.S. relations with its European NATO allies would reach another inflection point. Much of the current flux stems from the changing power distribution in Europe, as the Trump administration prioritizes the Indo-Pacific theater and has signaled in no uncertain terms that Europe must take responsibility for most of its security and defense tasks. This new form of American “benign neglect” has translated into pressure on Europe to rearm but has thus far lacked a larger strategic concept for how the relationship with the European allies ought to evolve going forward. Such unprecedented lack of guidance from Washington has left NATO defaulting to the intra-European dynamic as the principal structuring driver of change. Simply put, while the European allies have committed to spending 5% of GDP by 2035, the politics of the alliance has become by default the purview of the Europeans, especially Germany.