Can Europe shoulder its military burden on its own?

The American message that Europe needs to uphold its end of the bargain is not simply about sharing the burden, says Clara Marina O'Donnell, a senior fellow at the CER in London who is currently at the Brookings Institution in Washington. It's also about ensuring a peaceful Europe that won't demand American military attention. "NATO has meant that countries, historically, that had been at war have put those animosities aside and committed to mutual security," she says, "It means that at least there is one part of the world that the US had to worry about before that it now doesn't have to worry about."