The Case for Forces in Europe

This weekend we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Over 100,000 Americans buried in European soil gave their lives fighting against tyranny and injustice in Europe over the past century. The international commitment to an enduring peace and stability in Europe was memorialized with the creation of NATO, an organization that has become an historical benchmark for underwriting the security of nations to support unprecedented prosperity and freedom. The United States, as a founding member of NATO, has maintained a significant military presence within Europe, with the full blessing of the host-nation governments, throughout the organization’s history. This presence has signified a tangible and reassuring commitment to that enduring peace and stability.

Today, however, US forces—from the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines and Coast Guard—are here in Europe in numbers much reduced from the Cold War era for reasons that are uniquely suited to a drastically changed strategic reality. The United States “fights”—not just in combat but before and after hostilities as well—in coalitions. It is no coincidence that the vast majority of our coalition partners come from the European Command theater, where the US has maintained its commitment not only to the security of our European neighbors, but to the creation of partner capacity to bring peace and stability anywhere in the world it is needed. It is no coincidence that over 85% of the partner flags that currently serve in Afghanistan—a force of over 28,000—come from EUCOM’s theater. And it is no coincidence that some of our most reliable partners, day in and day out, are found here in Europe. Because US forces are a recognizable presence within Europe, because US forces train regularly with our European and Eurasian partners, and because US forces have helped build a capacity for the forces of almost every country within the European Command theater to deploy and operate together with the forces of the United States, we now have the capability to address threats to global peace and stability with a coalition that clearly understands the threat and has developed the tools to meet it at its doorstep.

Our Europe-stationed forces not only assure our NATO allies of our commitment to our mutual stability and security, but they train and “fight” with our European and Eurasian partners and allies in Afghanistan and Iraq in a coalition that reduces further strain to our own forces. The focus of US forces stationed in Europe has thus shifted from Providing Security to Europe to Providing Security from Europe. Maintaining these forces and bases in Europe and Eurasia is perhaps the most effective investment in global security the United States can make.

Col Eric Beene, U.S. Air Force
Chief of Strategy
US European Command J5