The United States cannot handle all of the world’s potential conflicts on its own, and certainly not simultaneously. It should concentrate on Asia and enable Europe to bolster its own defenses against the threat from Russia. And it is Germany that has to play the central role.

The rapid rise of China is inevitably forcing a major shift in the US-European relationship. It is time for both sides to root the transatlantic bond in shared interests, rather than often ill-defined values. Fortunately, such a basis exists.