Both Obama and Trump recognized that the U.S. should no longer play the role of global hegemon in maintaining peace and security. Contrary to the ‘hegemonic stability theory’, the US does not want to play the role of benign hegemon any longer. As for the relations with traditional allies, the key message the United States is now sending is that those allies should spend more on their security and defense. They should not take the American commitment to their security for granted. European allies should both speed up their integration process within EU and contribute more strategic and military capabilities to NATO (Haas, 2017, 2-9). Dealing with the challenges arising from the resurgent Russia, instability in the Balkans and the growing anarchy in the Middle East and North Africa is first and foremost the responsibility of European allies. What happens in these locations affect Europe more than the U.S. It is now abundantly clear that that the U.S. does not want to channel too much of its attention and capabilities to European and Middle Eastern security challenges. Rather, it would like to see its European allies pay much of the bill in such theatres. With Obama and Trump, the focus on great power relations came back. Dealing with China and Russia now appears to be more important than focusing on humanitarian interventions, counter-terrorism and democracy promotion exercises.