If a European member of NATO invokes the military alliance’s call for help, can the White House promise it will pick up the phone?

FP’s Ravi Agrawal put that question to Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s top policymaker, in a wide-ranging discussion on the main stage at the Munich Security Conference. “Let me be clear from the perspective of the Department of War. The United States is committed to NATO. It is committed to Article 5,” Colby responded. But, he added, “The frame that we often hear from our European friends is almost a theological frame that’s asking about the purity of heart.”

So is that a yes or a no on upholding Article 5, the NATO clause that says an attack on one ally is an attack on all of them? “I’m a government official; we don’t engage in speculation,” Colby said. “The president has shown in places like Venezuela and in Operation Midnight Hammer that he is prepared to use military force decisively to back up his pledges to work with our allies, like our model ally Israel. We train, we ready our forces, we think intimately, and we have discussions about these practicalities. This is the spirit at the Department of War, but I would say throughout our administration: We are more in the delivering-results-and-readiness business than in the cheap-talk business. That distinguishes us from our predecessors.”