With the media focused at the NATO summit in Chicago on the organization’s future role in Afghanistan, President Obama’s plan to strengthen the alliance passed largely under the radar. Even as the United States supposedly “pivots” to Asia to contain a rising China by augmenting alliances with China’s neighbors, the United States is once again trying to secure everything by shoring up NATO in Europe.

At least in Asia there exists a rising power to be nervous about. In Europe, even a Russia that sometimes fails to do exactly what the United States wants is no Soviet Union.