With U.S. leadership in doubt, can its allies chart their own course? : NPR

Ben Bland is the director of the Asia-Pacific Program at Chatham House, an international policy think tank based in London. He is also the author of two books on Asian politics.

Even before President Trump returned to the White House earlier this year, conversations with diplomatic and security officials across Europe and Asia revealed a deep contradiction. On the one hand, U.S. allies fear the breakdown of the international order that has underpinned their stability in recent decades. On the other, they are hesitant to invest in the structural changes needed to adapt to a more uncertain world.

But this may be changing. U.S. allies in Europe and the Indo-Pacific have shown an increasing willingness in recent months to coordinate and cooperate across a wide range of shared interests, from