POLICY BRIEF Burden Sharing Revisited - How to Keep the United States

German and European leaders must use the time remaining until November to influence the Aylin Matlé US debate: They need to commit to concrete measures now – not only Research Fellow to improve European security but also to incentivize Washington to Center for Security and Defense r emain committed to Europe. [...] As the election campaign heats up, the question wheth- In the years since the Obama administration an- er the United States should reduce its commitment nounced its “pivot to Asia” in 2011, China and the toward Europe will gain increased attention. [...] Today, Europe is facing a predicament: Despite am- In brief, Europe must become more active to ensure ple warnings about US plans to scale back on the its own security, not only, but also to incentivize the continent, it has failed to take sufficient steps to en- United States to remain committed to Europe. [...] on the outcome of the election, the common denom- With this in mind, Germany should understand that inator is that Europe needs to do more to keep the spending money it not an end in itself. [...] that there is a unified “Western bloc.” The impact on the United States would be twofold: If European allies generated more capabilities of their own, they would relieve the pressure on American re- sources and at the same time signal to the Americans their willingness to take on more responsibility for European allies transatlantic security.