Yesterday, Donald Trump announced he’s considering pulling out of NATO. I reached out to the foremost authority on geopolitics I know to ask if he could actually pull it off. The answer was a definitive "yes." Trump has the power to dismantle NATO’s framework—but in the end, he’d be the one losing the most. Professor Sarah Paine is, by every measure, one of the most distinguished contemporary scholars of political strategy and history. She is a direct descendant of Robert Treat Paine, one of the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Her family even stood alongside Martin Luther King Jr. during one of America’s most pivotal social revolutions. Widely regarded as a leading academic voice on the evolution of maritime and continental powers, her work—including the groundbreaking The Wars for Asia, 1911–1949—has redefined the West’s understanding of global conflict. As a cornerstone of the U.S. Naval War College, she brings a unique depth to her analysis through her fluency in Chinese, Russian, and Japanese. Her lectures have reached millions, making her the most-watched geopolitical expert on the planet. I wanted to share her insights with you all here.