Chase Metcalf and John Nagl
The headquarters of US Army Europe and Africa (USAREUR-AF) is at Clay Kaserne in western Germany, not far from Frankfurt and situated near the mighty Rhine River. The area has changed hands often; during the Allied occupation of the Rhineland after World War I, it was controlled by the French Army and then became the headquarters of the British Army of the Rhine from 1925 to 1930. Wiesbaden, the city that houses Clay Kaserne, was not bombed as heavily as Frankfurt by the Allies during World War II—largely because it was not a major industrial center—and has had a continuous US presence since 1945.
Today USAREUR-AF has responsibility for oversight of Army operations across two continents with a population of more than two billion people. Increasingly, it also has responsibility for preparing to fight a war against a Russia that three years ago violated the most basic principle of international law—the inviolability of borders—by invading Ukraine. Those brave souls in the invaded country are now fighting the biggest war in Europe since World War II.
The objectives of Russia’s imperial President Vladimir Putin do not stop in Ukraine, which shares its western borders with NATO members Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Putin has been clear that he wishes to restore the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence over Eastern Europe, including the Baltic states. He is resorting to sabotage against Western targets to try to convince NATO not to resist and building relationships with North Korea, China, and Iran to further his geopolitical ambitions.
Europe is waking up to the Russian threat and during our recent visit to USAREUR-AF, we saw signs that NATO is, as well. Though USAREUR-AF is technically an American headquarters it is inextricably linked with NATO through its role as a combined joint force land component command headquarters operating as a single team alongside NATO’s Allied Land Command. This makes it an ideal place to gain a nuanced sense of both USAREUR-AF’s and NATO’s priorities—an opportunity we recently had. As part of a small team of active duty and retired military officers from the United States Army War College, we recently taught some fifty staff officers from the headquarters something of the role their unit plays in peace and war.
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