Many European politicians believe they cannot rely on America for defensive support. America has supplied military and defense assistance to European countries for decades. As a long-time opponent of NATO and the European Union is in government, European countries are exploring for alternatives. Donald Trump’s policies are unknown, and during his first term, he not only launched a trade war with China but also with its friends.
The threat to European security has grown as a result of the belief that the United States is disengaging from Europe and instead drawing with the continent’s arch nemesis, Russian President Putin. Trump initiatives both encourage and dismay Europeans.
The United States has long opposed European strategic autonomy ambitions, which is why European friends must suffer. The West’s recent shift in policies is clear, as they invest considerably in their defense budget.
Europeans at their best Armed forces were unable to coerce German forces, but the situation has changed in the modern world. Furthermore, the world in 1945 differed from the world we live in now. Modern combat causes a large number of victims and consumes a lot of resources.
Let’s talk about what’s causing friction between the United States and Europe. The main source of irritation is Donald Trump and JD Vanca’s attitude. For decades, political scientists have speculated that a struggle between democracies and dictatorships would soon take over the world. It has been widely reported that the West will align on one side while totalitarian states will form a cluster on the other.
No one has imagined a situation that the decline of liberal world order will take place in this way in which even democratic countries will not stick togehter. so the dream of dictatorship vs democracies was worst but the situation is even more worst now a days.
The truth is even worse. Donald Trump’s US is now corrupting the whole concept of liberal democracy in order to weaken it, both in the US and, as has become painfully clear, in Europe.
At the Munich security conference, US Vice President JD Vance accused Europe of abandoning democratic norms by creating barriers to keep the far right out of government, of fearing its citizens, and of curbing free speech. This was to a mostly European audience anxiously expecting Vance to address the major security issues of our time, from Ukraine and Russia to China and the Middle East.
His attack on European democracy left the audience stunned and outraged. His unsettling insinuation that the fight against disinformation constitutes a war on democracy was actually shocking.
Vance’s remarkable assault, as well as his electoral activity on behalf of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland in Germany just days before the general election (he had previously met with the AfD’s co-leader Alice Weidel), have little to do with democracy.
Rather, he was detailing the Mega (Make Europe Great Again) project, which supports the far right throughout Europe. The strategic goal is clear: a strengthened nationalist far right in Europe is a split Europe that imperial powers, whether the United States, Russia, or China, can easily dominate.
If Trump’s purpose is to neo-Nazi-ize Germany, it is linked to the Russification of Ukraine, the first under the flag of “free speech” and the second under the banner of “common sense”. Trump and Putin share an imperial vision of the world, which includes an imperial “peace” in Ukraine.
It is imperial because, like Yalta in 1945, it will be decided by empires: the United States and Russia, possibly with the support of China, but not Ukraine. It is also imperial since it acknowledges Russia’s imperial objectives for a sphere of influence, which Trump shares, as evidenced by his attitude to Canada, Mexico, Panama, Greenland, and, in fact, Europe as a whole.
We are also learning that, rather than a reformed multilateral system, or even a more chaotic multi-order world, we are entering a phase in which no order exists at all. It is a world in which international tribunals are sanctioned, international institutions are demonized, international law is routinely broken, and international aid is systematically slashed. China will strive to fill the hole by promoting multilateralism, collaboration, predictability, and free trade, as the Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Wang Yi, did in Munich.
However, China is most likely determined to seize the spoils of a dissatisfied Europe betrayed by the United States.
During a panel discussion in Munich with the Indian foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, I mentioned the hazards of a world without any rules of the road. He responded by stating that India preferred the transactionalism inherent in the survival-of-the-fittest scenario. He traveled to Munich after accompanying the Indian prime leader, Narendra Modi, in what was, for them, a successful visit to Washington, when Modi and Trump agreed on gas, weapons, and more.
It seems the world order will remain in turmoil for next two decades and political extremism will continue to exacerbate. As the world is in transition and the transition was never peaceful.
