Earlier this week, Paris and Berlin said they had agreed to revise the strategic concept of the NATO alliance in response to France being humiliated when Australia decided to unilaterally terminate a $66 billion submarine deal in favour of a defence pact with the United States and UK. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the move as a "
stab in the back".
Armstrong called the decision to revise the alliance's concept "a step" toward realising their subordinate role to Washington.
Meanwhile, some have suggested more dialogue with Washington could alter the situation – but others remain sceptical.
US political commentator, Professor John Walsh, pointed out that there had never been any real political dialogue within the NATO alliance during its 72 years of existence. From the very beginning, US policymakers had taken for granted that they would issue the commands and the role of all their European allies was simply to obey, Walsh said.
The US is now so panicked over China, Walsh added, that it "dispenses with the makeup".
"Or, as Victoria Nuland put it nakedly, 'f**k the EU'", Walsh said.
French Defence Minister Florence Parly this week said the move to revise the NATO concept is meant to remind Washington that the reason for the alliance's existence is
transatlantic security. She said being allies does not mean "being hostage to the interests of another country".
California State University Emeritus Professor of Politics Beau Grosscup said the initiative did indeed confirm that US allies were beginning to reassess their long-subservient role to Washington.
US administrations, he added, most recently Trump's, have bludgeoned European allies into paying more for the alliance without giving up its decisive role in policymaking.
"In short, the French-German officials are saying, if the US wants NATO to continue the time has come for Europeans to become equal partners in policymaking - not only on questions of European security but also regarding US security in a new and true definition of 'Transatlantic Security Alliance' - something the US has always and adamantly rejected", Grosscup said.