{"id":63624,"date":"2026-05-05T10:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/?p=63624"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:49:14","slug":"berger-warns-trumps-iran-policy-and-troop-cuts-are-fracturing-u-s-alliances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/2026\/05\/05\/berger-warns-trumps-iran-policy-and-troop-cuts-are-fracturing-u-s-alliances\/","title":{"rendered":"Berger Warns Trump\u2019s Iran Policy and Troop Cuts Are Fracturing U.S. Alliances"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Professor Thomas Berger<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a May 4, 2026 interview on Background Briefing with Ian Masters<\/em>, Thomas Berger,<\/a> Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School,<\/span> warned that the Trump administration\u2019s approach to Iran and Europe is severely straining U.S. alliances and undermining long\u2011standing security arrangements.<\/p>\n

Berger argued that President Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw roughly 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany was driven less by strategy than by political grievance, after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz publicly criticized Washington for lacking a clear Iran policy. Berger described the episode as \u201cprobably a poor choice of words, especially given Trump\u2019s sensitivities on the question of humiliation and appearances of strength,\u201d adding that it triggered \u201cour president\u2019s fit of pique\u201d and punitive troop cuts that weaken deterrence in Europe.<\/p>\n

\n

Berger emphasized that U.S. allies are now paying the economic price for a war they neither endorsed nor helped shape. \u201cTrump launched this attack with no consultation whatsoever with any of our allies, except Israel,\u201d he said, noting that European and Asian economies, particularly energy importers, face \u201cgrave\u201d consequences from instability in the Middle East. Compounding the damage, Berger pointed out, is what he sees as a troubling contradiction in U.S. policy: \u201cTrump then blames them for not doing more, not helping him out more in clearing the Straits of Hormuz.\u201d In Berger\u2019s assessment, \u201cit\u2019s not the brightest moment in U.S. alliance politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Germany, the security implications are especially serious. Berger stressed that removing a U.S. brigade from the Munich area \u201cweakens the U.S. tripwire, the U.S. deterrent, extended deterrent, which we provide to Germany,\u201d a non\u2011nuclear state that depends heavily on American security guarantees. That erosion comes amid mounting European intelligence concerns about future Russian hybrid warfare and alongside new economic pressure from U.S. tariffs on European cars.<\/p>\n

Taken together, Berger portrays a pattern of no consultation, economic harm, public blame, and punitive measures that signals a deeper breakdown in U.S. alliance management; one that is leaving allies angry and increasingly uncertain about Washington\u2019s reliability.<\/p>\n

The full interview can be listened to here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thomas Berger<\/a> is a professor of international relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. He is the author of\u00a0War, Guilt and World Politics After World War II<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0\u00a0Cultures of Antimilitarism: National Security in Germany and Japan<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and is co-editor of\u00a0Japan in International Politics: The Foreign Policies of an Adaptive\u00a0State<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0His articles and essays have appeared in numerous edited volumes and journals, including\u00a0International Security<\/em>,\u00a0Review of International Studies<\/em>,\u00a0German Politics,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0World Affairs Quarterly<\/em>. To learn more about Professor Berger’s academic contributions, visit his faculty profile<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a May 4, 2026 interview on Background Briefing with Ian Masters, Thomas Berger, Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School, warned that the Trump administration\u2019s approach to Iran and Europe is severely straining U.S. alliances and undermining long\u2011standing security arrangements. Berger argued that President Trump\u2019s decision to withdraw roughly 5,000 U.S. troops from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25562,"featured_media":63153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8410],"tags":[8368,8582,8593,1819,8581,9527,13483],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63624"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25562"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63624"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63626,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63624\/revisions\/63626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/pardeeschool\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}