Once pretty staid affairs, NATO gatherings nowadays are infused with melodrama and cliffhanging uncertainty about global challenges and the willingness of the United States to aid its allies. Diplomats were particularly unnerved by the U.S. decision last month to withdraw troops from northern Syria before a Turkish invasion, without consulting the Europeans in advance.
Testimony by State Department officials at the impeachment hearings in Washington has also made some of his own diplomats question Pompeo’s strength of purpose, while a growing number of European diplomats say they believe he ultimately yields to President Trump’s wishes even if he considers them unwise.
