Kuala Lampur, Sept. 13 -- Germany's diplomatic corps gathered in Berlin this week under a cloud of uncertainty, summoned home by Chancellor Friedrich Merz to hear a sobering message: Europe's long-standing partnership with the United States is not what it once was.

"The US is reassessing its interests - and not just since yesterday. And so we in Europe must also adjust our interests, without false nostalgia," Merz declared before some 600 ambassadors.

His words were striking not because they were wholly unexpected, but because they captured a moment of historical reckoning. Since the Marshall Plan and Nato's founding, Europe has relied on the American security umbrella.

But Washington today - under Donald Trump's second presidency - sp...