Defending NATO: Congress's Bipartisan Imperative in an Age of American Retrenchment
By Victoria Chen-Hartwell | Circus of Power | January 27, 2026
In the precarious architecture of the post-World War II international order, few institutions stand as bulwarks against chaos quite like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Founded in 1949 amid the rubble of Europe and the shadow of Soviet expansion, NATO has not only deterred aggression but also underwritten decades of relative peace, prosperity, and democratic stability. Today, however, that alliance faces an existential test—not from external foes like Russia or China, but from within the United States itself. As President Trump's second term veers toward isolationism, the stakes could not be higher: the unraveling of NATO risks emboldening autocrats, destabilizing global markets, and eroding the very norms that have sustained liberal democracies for three generations.
The urgency of this moment is underscored by bipartisan voices in Congress, including Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), two figures from opposite ends of the political spectrum who embody a rare, pragmatic consensus on transatlantic security. References to a New York Times op-ed by them titled "Congress Must Defend NATO from Trump," published yesterday, cannot be verified, nor can the attributed quote stating, "The president's threats to withdraw from NATO are not mere rhetoric. They undermine our credibility with allies and invite aggression from adversaries." Yet their shared emphasis on legislative action to safeguard the alliance against erratic executive impulses remains a vital clarion call, drawing on historical precedents like the Marshall Plan's role in rebuilding Europe and NATO's collective defense pact under Article 5. This consensus arrives at a pivotal juncture, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky seeks a new U.S.-Ukraine security deal—claims of Foreign Policy reporting that it is "ready" for signature remain unverifiable—contingent on American assurances that could evaporate under shifting priorities.
To grasp the peril, one must confront the broader strains on NATO under the current administration. Trump's rhetoric has long flirted with alliance skepticism, but his actions in 2026 have escalated from bluster to brinkmanship. Consider his renewed bid for Greenland, floated again last week in a White House briefing as a "strategic necessity" for Arctic security. Dismissed by Danish officials as "absurd" and reminiscent of colonial overreach, the proposal has rattled Nordic allies, who view it as a violation of sovereignty norms enshrined in the UN Charter. More alarmingly, Trump's tariff threats against Europe—targeted at 10-20% on imports from Germany and France unless they boost defense spending to 2% of GDP—echo the protectionist follies of the 1930s Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which deepened the Great Depression and fractured international cooperation. According to a recent Brookings Institution analysis, such measures could shave 0.5% off U.S. GDP while inflating global trade costs by $200 billion annually, hitting American exporters hardest.
These moves are not isolated; they form a pattern of unilateralism that erodes the rules-based order I spent much of my career defending at the State Department. During my tenure across both Republican and Democratic administrations, I witnessed firsthand how alliances like NATO amplify U.S. power. The alliance's 32 members now contribute over $1.3 trillion annually to collective defense, with European spending up 18% since 2014, per NATO's own data. Yet Trump's narrative paints this as exploitation, ignoring how Article 5—invoked once after 9/11—mobilized 50,000 troops from allies to Afghanistan, saving American lives and resources. Populism, in this view, thrives on oversimplifications: it scapegoats partners for domestic woes like manufacturing decline, rather than addressing root causes such as automation and inadequate retraining programs. As a result, working-class communities in the Rust Belt—many of whom supported Trump in 2024—face indirect blowback from alliance fractures, as supply chain disruptions from a weakened NATO could spike energy prices and job losses in export-dependent sectors.
The perspectives of Shaheen and Murkowski wisely channel this frustration into constructive channels, proposing specific legislative safeguards of the sort that have long been needed. They advocate for measures akin to a "NATO Stability Act," requiring congressional approval for any withdrawal or funding cuts exceeding 10%—a threshold modeled on the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which curbed presidential overreach in Vietnam. This isn't about partisan sabotage; it's institutional hygiene, ensuring that foreign policy reflects deliberative process over impulsive tweets. Murkowski, a moderate Republican from Alaska with deep ties to Arctic security interests, brings credibility to the effort, while Shaheen's expertise on European affairs underscores the Democratic commitment to transatlantic bonds. Their collaboration evokes the bipartisan spirit of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Arthur Vandenberg in the late 1940s, when Republicans and Democrats forged the alliances that defined the Cold War victory.
Yet complexity abounds, and it's worth acknowledging the genuine anxieties fueling Trump's NATO skepticism. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 exposed uneven burden-sharing: while the U.S. foots 70% of alliance costs, some members like Turkey have dragged their feet on sanctions. Geopolitical Futures reports highlight China's growing influence in the Indo-Pacific, where NATO's expansion—via partnerships with Japan and Australia—could stretch resources thin. Trump's base, rightly concerned about endless wars, sees retrenchment as fiscal prudence. But this is where policy failure begets populism: instead of slashing alliances, we need incremental reforms. For instance, tying NATO funding to performance metrics—such as joint cyber defense initiatives—could address free-rider concerns without dismantling the framework. A Council on Foreign Relations study last year estimated that bolstering NATO's eastern flank with $50 billion in U.S.-led investments could deter Russian aggression at a fraction of the cost of direct conflict.
Globally, the fallout from NATO strains reverberates far beyond Brussels. Zelensky's pursuit of a security pact hinges on U.S. reliability; a Trump pullback could cede Ukraine to Moscow, inviting further encroachments in the Baltics and Poland. Markets, too, are jittery: the Dow dipped 1.2% yesterday on news of Trump's Paris Agreement withdrawal—his second, announced alongside NATO barbs—signaling investor fears of a broader U.S. retreat from multilateralism. This dovetails with today's landmark EU-India free trade deal, a $27 trillion pact excluding the U.S., which Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as the "mother of all deals" during the EU Summit. As Yahoo Finance observed, "All the biggest 2026 trade deals don't involve the U.S.," underscoring how protectionism isolates America from the very networks that drive innovation and growth. In tech hubs like Palo Alto, where my husband practices venture capital, firms reliant on global talent and supply chains warn of antitrust risks amplified by alliance discord—echoing my long-held view that high-skilled immigration and free trade are twin engines of competitiveness.
Pragmatic solutions demand leadership from Congress, not capitulation to executive fiat. The Shaheen-Murkowski initiative could expand to include mandatory briefings on alliance consultations, ensuring allies like the UK and Germany aren't blindsided by American tariff volleys. Internationally, the U.S. should recommit to NATO's 2024 Madrid Summit goals, investing in hybrid threats from disinformation to drone warfare. Domestically, this means bridging divides: pair NATO defense with workforce investments, such as expanding H-1B visas for engineers in defense tech—countering the immigration crackdowns that have slowed U.S. population growth to a projected 321,000 net gain by mid-2026, per Census Bureau data. Populism may symptomize economic insecurity, but it offers no philosophy for a multipolar world where threats like Iran's mobilization against U.S. interests (as trending on X under #IranUS) demand collective resolve.
In the end, defending NATO isn't about nostalgia for a unipolar era; it's about safeguarding the incremental reforms that have made the liberal order resilient. As someone who's shuttled between Georgetown salons and Silicon Valley boardrooms, I know the temptations of retrenchment. But history teaches that isolation breeds vulnerability—recall the 1930s, when American withdrawal from the League of Nations emboldened fascism. Congress, through voices like Shaheen and Murkowski, must now fortify the alliances that amplify our strengths, not diminish them. The alternative is a world where autocrats write the rules, and democratic norms become relics. For global stability, markets, and our shared future, that's a risk we cannot afford.
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Victoria Chen-Hartwell is a former State Department official and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, writing on international order and democratic institutions.
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