U.S. Defense Policy in Central and Eastern Europe
By Logan C. West
January 04, 2025
The Localized Future of U.S. Defense Policy in Central and Eastern Europe
The incoming Trump administration faces a tumultuous Central and Eastern European region. Restoring order relies on strengthening key bilateral relations.
Geopolitically speaking, things have not been going America’s way. Considering the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, and China’s continued economic and military expansion across the globe, waning U.S. influence has precipitated a rise in global instability. The trend is bad enough that its impact has reached European borders with the Ukraine conflict, where large scale state-on-state wars were thought to be a thing of the past. The detrimental impact on Washington’s standing in Central and Eastern Europe has been particularly noticeable.
Russia’s military adventurism in Ukraine came on the heels of Biden’s pullout of coalition forces in Afghanistan. One could argue that the Afghan debacle was a moment of U.S. weakness exploited by the Putin regime. Meanwhile, China is increasing its investment foothold in the small nation of Hungary. Particular targets have been manufacturing, logistics, telecommunications infrastructure, and artificial intelligence research and development. Along with the influx of financial capital, a series of new memorandums of understanding were signed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Chinese President Xi during a recent visit to Budapest by the latter. One of the accords established a joint policing agreement between the two nations on Hungarian soil while another provides a platform for cooperation on the use of nuclear energy.
The usual American response relies primarily on its large coalitions such as NATO and forums like the Summit for Democracy. The default reaction from such platforms is to grandstand with lectures on proper international conduct and virtuous tenets for everyone else to follow. It has not been getting results.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2025/01/04/us_defense_policy_in_central_and_eastern_europe_1082448.html