The Case for a New Atlantic Alliance.

• Date: 01 April 2022
• Author: Glastris, Paul

The degree to which Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine, and Ukraine's brave resistance, is scrambling the global order is hard to exaggerate. It has reenergized the NATO alliance, drawn Pacific Rim democracies like Japan and Australia into the fight, and deepened Russia's dependence on China. At home, it has boosted Joe Biden's poll numbers and forced Putin apologists like J. D. Vance to backpedal. It has also caused citizens around the world to cheer for an embattled liberal democracy fighting dictatorial aggression while giving younger Americans reason to rethink their deep distrust of U.S. global power.

Nowhere has the change been more profound than in Germany. For a decade and a half under then Chancellor Angela Merkel, Berlin deliberately increased its dependence on Russian fossil fuels to support its profitable exports while under-investing in its military. In late February, Merkel's successor, Olaf Scholz, reversed those policies. He announced that he would halt a new gas pipeline from Russia, send antitank and antiaircraft weapons to Ukraine, and increase the German defense budget by a staggering 100 billion...