Once upon a time, the Munich Security Conference was a place where transatlantic decision-makers would gather to talk about the issues of the day, which now seems quaint in retrospect. John McCain and Lindsey Graham would lead a CODEL to Munich, where they were received as grandees of the American empire along with whomever the White House chose to send. Whatever disagreements existed—over the invasion of Iraq, say, or how to handle a resurgent Russia—were not about the fundamentals of the alliance. Even after McCain died, even after Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine and the first Trump term, the foundational premise of Munich held firm: The American delegation was warmly welcomed as first among equals.