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But this evil group is hard to keep down — a task made all the more difficult if the United States winds up removing its remaining troops from Syria and Iraq prematurely. While the world’s attention has been riveted elsewhere — in particular on Ukraine and Gaza — the Islamic State has been staging a slow-motion resurgence, not only in its Iraq-Syria heartland but also as far afield as Afghanistan and Africa.

U.S. Strategy Should Be Europe First, Then Asia  (A. Wess Mitchell and Jakub Grygiel, Foreign Policy)
The United States’ ability to cope with the pressures of great-power competition hinges on securing Europe and preserving the trans-Atlantic alliance. While it is true that there are serious and pressing national security problems in Asia and the Middle East, these can only be dealt with effectively once the Atlantic foundation of Washington’s global strength is secure. To conduct a future pivot to Asia, the United States needs a fulcrum in Europe—not vice versa.
Prioritizing the stabilization of Europe may seem to defy logic. Strategically, China is without any question the United States’ most capable and dangerous adversary. Politically, the Iran-Israel standoff is potentially explosive, currently grabs the most attention in Washington, and will probably continue to preoccupy U.S. leaders for a while. Economically, Asia collectively accounts for more U.S. trade than any other region, and events in the Middle East have a direct bearing on gas prices in an election year.
It goes without saying that the United States should endeavor to preserve its interests in all three of these vital regions. But as U.S. military leaders have repeatedly made clear, the country lacks the resources to fight two major peers simultaneously. Therefore, the question of which region should receive the most attention will continue to present itself.
The answer should continue to be Europe. The reasons are not grounded in gauzy nostrums about trans-Atlantic solidarity but in clear-eyed strategic logic.