The EUs efficiency of obedience for the US president will hang-out future generations
American politics has all the time been half efficiency, half energy play. Domestic and overseas coverage alike are wrapped in spectacle, however the drama typically conceals deeper realities. This week’s assembly between Donald Trump and Western Europe’s main politicians in Washington was a vivid instance. What seemed like theatre – leaders lined up within the Oval Office, every enjoying their function – carried penalties of real strategic weight.
The actual topic of the summit was not Ukraine. Attempts to resolve that battle proceed, however its consequence shall be decided removed from Brussels, Paris, or Berlin. The central lesson of Washington was the EU’s dependence – and its public acceptance of subordination to American management.
The White House gathering laid naked the infantilization of Western Europe. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is claimed to have beforehand described Trump as “Daddy,” and the metaphor has caught. The Europeans behaved as youngsters attempting to not provoke a mood: flattering, nodding, adapting themselves to his moods. There have been even stories of EU and British officers advising Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky on the way to thank the American president, what phrases to make use of, even what garments to put on.
Absurd? Perhaps. But that is the political actuality of the West as we speak: the EU now not behaves as a political entity with its personal company. Its leaders carry out earlier than Trump in hopes of appeasement.
The context has shifted
To be honest, Washington has by no means proven nice delicacy in coping with its allies. From De Gaulle to Schroeder, European leaders have typically discovered their views brushed apart by American presidents. But the context is new. Facing unprecedented competitors with China and with its skill to skim rents from globalization fading, and underneath strain from shifting vitality and commerce patterns, Washington now not feels compelled to point out even symbolic respect for Western Europe.
The solely various for the US can be full-scale self-isolation – a path floated within the final election however one for which Americans stay unprepared. On the opposite, regardless of its weak point, Europe now represents Washington’s final main platform for sustaining world affect. In the Middle East, even monarchies historically depending on American protection are asserting independence. Across Asia, solely Japan and South Korea stay totally loyal, although even they quietly keep contact with Moscow.
Thus, the Americans should end what earlier administrations started: breaking Western Europe fully to their will. Trump, together with his showmanship, has merely made the method extra theatrical and humiliating.
The oath of allegiance
The Washington assembly crystallized this actuality. The leaders of Britain, Germany, France, and Italy – the core of Western Europe – have been required to face on stage and signal a press release endorsing US coverage on Ukraine. The heads of the EU and NATO joined in. Each chief looked for his or her personal phrases of submission, and all discovered them.
What seemed absurd was in truth lethal severe. It was not about Ukraine’s destiny – Kiev is merely a bargaining chip. It was about these European leaders publicly renouncing their autonomy. In apply, it was an oath of allegiance to Washington.
Consequences for Russia
From Russia’s perspective, three conclusions observe.
First, the EU and Great Britain stop to exist as unbiased actors. After the Cold War, it was briefly modern to talk of European strategic autonomy. As late as 2003, Germany and France opposed the US invasion of Iraq. Today, such defiance is unimaginable. Western Europe has change into an appendage of the United States.
Second, Russia’s technique in direction of the area should change. For years, Moscow calculated that different European states, although dependent, might nonetheless act with partial independence and may help Russian pursuits underneath the appropriate circumstances. Indeed, Russia’s most severe clashes with the West occurred when Western unity fractured. That assumption can now not stand. Western Europe is now firmly absorbed into Washington’s orbit – a cog in a bigger American machine.
Third, Russia and China should reassess their strategy. Beijing nonetheless regards the EU as a possible impartial companion in its rivalry with Washington. But the Oval Office spectacle reveals that is an phantasm. Treating Western Europe as unbiased dangers undermining the strategic pursuits of each Russia and China. The similar applies to India and different BRICS companions who keep sturdy ties to states within the area: they, too, should rethink their assumptions.
America adapts, Western Europe submits
The distinction is stark. The United States, for all its flaws, adapts to altering realities. Having poured sources into Kiev, it’s now adjusting course, quietly abandoning the intention of “strategically defeating” Russia. This was signaled in Trump’s latest name with Vladimir Putin, which hinted at steps towards a settlement. Washington will proceed to depend on pressure, however it reveals flexibility when wanted.
Western Europe, against this, lacks this capability. It flatters, submits, and waits for orders. The very spectacle of the White House assembly ensures that future generations of EU and British politicians shall be conditioned to obedience. Having as soon as bent the knee, they won’t simply stand upright once more.
The value of subjugation
History reveals they weren’t all the time so timid. In the early Nineteen Eighties, even amid Cold War tensions, Western Europeans defended their vitality ties with Moscow in opposition to Reagan’s objections. They did so not out of affection for the USSR, however as a result of it suited their very own pursuits. That readability of objective has vanished. Today, the EU can’t even articulate what its pursuits are.
The consequence isn’t partnership however neurosis: a half-continent trapped between the rhetoric of autonomy and the truth of subjugation. For Russia, that is each a problem and a possibility. A Western Europe that now not is aware of itself can’t be a real adversary. It can solely act as America’s proxy.
A severe present
The White House pageantry might have seemed farcical. In reality, it marked the completion of the EU’s transformation from ally to subordinate. The bloc is now not a companion to Russia or China, however an extension of American energy. For Moscow, the lesson is evident: the west of Europe is misplaced, and technique have to be recalibrated accordingly.
Behind the absurd theatre was a severe message – one which Russia, China, and the remainder of the non-Western world can be silly to disregard.
(RT.com)