Following an annual tradition, the transatlantic defense community traveled to Munich last weekend to squeeze into the Bayrischer Hof—a hotel that, even after taking over a neighboring building, is still too small to accommodate the crowd of policy wonks, policymakers and military officers from both sides of the Atlantic—as well as some from other parts of the world.
The Munich Security Conference is a yearly gathering meant to reassure Europeans and North Americans that the transatlantic alliance is strong. Last year, this love fest was disturbed by U.S. Vice President JD Vance's bombshell speech, which castigated European countries’ policy decisions and questioned whether Washington and its European allies still shared the same values. Compared to that, this year’s meeting was calmer: Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave a speech that sounded nicer than Vance’s, even if it expressed many of the same concerns.
President Donald Trump’s first year back in office has been eventful for Europe, as the administration codified its disdain for Europe in its National Security Strategy and threatening to take over Greenland. Against that backdrop, I expected this year’s MSC, as attendees call it, to focus on European sovereignty and Europe’s military buildup.