New poll finds Europeans think America will leave them out to dry

Only 6% of Western Europeans see the United States as a “very reliable” guarantor of European security over the next decade, according to a new survey released Wednesday, underscoring increasing worries about a trend of US isolationism.

The survey of 3,360 people, conducted by the Institute for Global Affairs housed at the Eurasia Group, found that 46% of Western Europeans — respondents from the UK, Germany, and France — view the US as somewhat reliable in its security commitments, while another 36% rate the US as somewhat unreliable and 10% believe the US cannot be relied on at all to protect Europe in the next decade.

The French and Germans polled were the most skeptical of US security commitments; half of the French respondents, for instance, replied that the US is either somewhat or very unreliable. Meanwhile, US respondents were much more likely to rate their own country as a very reliable guarantor of European security, with 24% saying so.