Bangladesh, Dec. 10 -- When Ulrike Franke, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, says that the new US National Security Strategy (NSS) “officially buries the old transatlantic relationship and the postwar West,” Europe should indeed take notice.

Frankes reading is straightforward and provocative: the new NSS document is quite explicit about prioritization. The days of the United States behaving like “Atlas”, propping up the world, are over, according to the document. The US now will concern itself with other countries “only” when their actions directly threaten American interests. It foregrounds the Western Hemisphere, insists nations should prioritize their own interests, and blu...