To whom it may concern: America and Europe need each other

THE funny thing about being a European during American presidential elections is the belief that you, too, should be allowed to vote. And can you blame us? Who gets to occupy the Oval Office is correctly seen by many in Europe as a decision of existential significance for the well-being and security of the continent.

No surprise, then, that even with a war raging in Europe involving repeated nuclear threats by the Kremlin, the developments in the US campaigns have received even greater attention in the European press than usual. Given the war in Ukraine, the risks of a larger war in the Middle East and China’s accelerating challenge to American primacy, Europe needs the United States more than it has since the end of the Cold War. And America still has a unique and valuable asset that its growing list of rivals and adversaries don’t: reliable allies and partners in Europe.

Over the years, the Munich Security Conference, the international security forum that I led for 14 years, has tallied a long list of transatlantic to-dos. At its core are three strategic challenges that America and Europe will need to face, regardless of who wins the US election in November. How we deal with them will decide whether the transatlantic alliance will continue as the tight-knit partnership we have known for the past 75 years or unravel.