Europe is allowing itself to be dominated by the US. It just isn’t admitting as much
https://theconversation.com/europe-is-allowing-itself-to-be-dominated-by-the-us-it-just-isnt-admitting-as-much-267060
by Crossstoney
Europe is allowing itself to be dominated by the US. It just isn’t admitting as much
https://theconversation.com/europe-is-allowing-itself-to-be-dominated-by-the-us-it-just-isnt-admitting-as-much-267060
by Crossstoney
29 comments
“For 80 years, Europe maintained an asymmetric yet cooperative relationship with the United States. This imbalance, long accepted as the price of stability and protection, has shifted dramatically under US President Donald Trump. What was once a strategically uneven interdependence has become an unbreakable grip, which is used to exert pressure while being denied by its victims.
In my book, l’Atlantisme est mort ? Vive l’Europe ! (Is Atlanticism Dead? Long Live Europe!), I describe this shift by introducing the concept of “emprisme”: a permitted grip in which Europeans, believing themselves to be partners, become dependent on a power that dominates them without their full awareness.
Emprisme does not merely refer to influence or soft power, but an internalised strategic subordination. Europeans justify this dependence in the name of realism, security, or economic stability, without recognising that it structurally weakens them.
In Trump’s worldview, Europeans are no longer allies but freeloaders. The common market enabled them to become the world’s largest consumer zone and strengthen their companies’ competitiveness, including in the US market. Meanwhile, through NATO, they let Washington bear the costs of collective defence.
The result? According to Trump, the US – because it is strong, generous, and noble – is being “taken advantage of” by its allies. This narrative justifies a shift: allies become resources to exploit. It is no longer cooperation, but extraction.
**Ukraine as a pressure lever**
The war in Ukraine perfectly illustrates this logic. While the EU mobilized to support Kyiv, this solidarity became a vulnerability exploited by Washington. When the Trump administration temporarily suspended Ukrainian access to US intelligence, the Ukrainian army became blind. Europeans, also dependent on this data, were left half-blind.
The administration’s move was not a mere tactical adjustment, but a strategic signal: European autonomy is conditional.
In July 2025, the EU accepted a deeply unbalanced trade agreement imposing 15% tariffs on its products, without reciprocity. The Turnberry agreement was negotiated at Trump’s private estate in Scotland – a strong symbol of the personalization and brutalization of international relations.
At the same time, the US stopped delivering weapons directly to Ukraine. Europeans now buy American-made arms and deliver them themselves to Kyiv. This is no longer partnership, but forced delegation.
**From partners to tributaries**
In the logic of the MAGA movement, which is dominant within the Republican Party, Europe is no longer a partner. At best, it is a client; at worst, a tributary.
In this situation, Europeans accept their subordination without naming it. This consent rests on two illusions: the idea that this dependence is the least bad option, and the belief that it is temporary.
Yet many European actors – political leaders, entrepreneurs, and industrialists – supported the Turnberry agreement and the intensification of US arms purchases. In 2025, Europe accepted a perverse deal: paying for its political, commercial and budgetary alignment in exchange for uncertain protection.
It is a quasi-mafia logic of international relations, based on intimidation, brutalization and the subordination of “partners”. Like Don Corleone in Frances Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, Trump seeks to impose an unpredictable American protection in exchange for an arbitrary price set unilaterally by the US.
The US feels more like the annoying child who gets into the rebellious phase.
Edit: the majority of views come from the US.
Europe isn’t a country. We need to stop speaking of it as if it was some monolith.
Europe is a continent. They mean EU when they talk about present day.
So who is not admitting this? Nobody acts like the US isnt dominant…
Its just not as black and white that the US dictates everything. But yeah, they are and have been more powerful than the countries of the EU (even combined) for more than a century now.
Russian propaganda
At this point, let’s just start allowing RT stories to be posted on r/Europe (and all other Russian state propoganda) because clearly accuracy isn’t what we’re going with here anymore 😂😂😂😂
Like the article posted above literally has an ad peirce for the authors book like deeply unserious shit
This is bullshit. The US wants Europe as an equal partner in the NATO alliance. You don’t ask people you want to dominate to rearm.
Is it tactful or polite? No. Is Denmark moving forces to defend Greenland now, thus closing a weak point in the GIUK gap by defending it’s own territory after Trump said a bunch of dumb shit and Denmark realized oh shit, we have no military presence on the largest part of our territory? Also yes.
If Russia invading Ukraine wasn’t enough of a wake up call, which apparently it isn’t, this administration has given one to Europe. Being tactful didn’t do it.
Trump will be gone in a few years, Europe will be pissed at us, but at least Europe will have functioning military forces again, the kind of thing you want when your eastern neighbor has decided it’s willing to use force and pay an insane cost in blood and treasure to get what it wants.
Out of all the things this government has done wrong, this is maybe the one thing they got right. Europe will be stronger for it.
I do not believe US has much “power” over Europe. Lynch me if you want.
I agree Von Der Leyen is weak as shit. She is just words. Her trade deal with the US was a disaster. The EU needs someone like Macron at the helm, who as disliked as he is domestically (which in my opinion is only because of the French having impossible demands regarding the pension system), he has pan-European interests at heart. I’m glad the EU’s main hard power (nukes) are at his hand and not at hers.
It’s allowing itself to be pounded by Islam.
Europe includes russia, even part of turkey. The EU gets dominated by the US, but this is nothing new. This is the case since the end of WW2. What’s different in the year 2025 is how the USA now looks at the EU. The EU is not treated as a partner but as a vassal now.
It is besieged by russia, ignored by china and humiliated by the USA. The question is, will the EU emerge as a fourth block of power or will it become a footnote in history and be grinded into dust.
US to announce that Nexperia’s Chinese facilities will resume shipments, source says
By David Shepardson
November 1, 20259:40 AM GMT+11Updated 1 hour ago
Daddy’s order hahahaha
Do they have a choice?
Europe isn’t being dominated by the US.
They’re being dominated by illegal Foreigners
Always have been, the US ask its dog to help invading the middle east and it also helps, difference is that the US never had to invade and install puppets regime like in Latam.
the US may seem dominant, but IMHO, Europe’s just playing the long game, ya know? Just vibing and keeping its sh*t together.
If Europe had replacements for Patriot missiles and the intel on Russian locations then I guess telling the Americans to fuck off would be possible.
Another MAGA president, particularly JD Vance either as President for real, his views are extreme enough or as a Dmitry Medevev to Trump would accelerate the train of European decoupling.
Unfortunately the war in Ukraine means the EU simply couldn’t retaliate against Trump’s tariffs because Trump has already cut American aid to Ukraine.
Retaliation on trade would surely see him refuse to sell the arms Ukraine needs and we in Europe cannot allow that outcome.
If that means stroking Trump’s tiny penis, so be it.
The issue isn’t where we are now, it’s where we go from here.
Defeating Russia, somehow mending Ukraine after it and military independence from the US are European security requirements now.
Each task is as daunting but also as indispensable as the other.
I think part of the problem in the long-term will be that Europe’s nominal GDP is only 67% of the USA (57% the size of Russia, the US, the US’s Gulf allies, and Israel put together), so it will never have the economic leverage it needs (when negotiating tariffs for example) when acting alone. US population is also growing a lot faster so it ain’t going to get any better.
I can see where ur coming from, but honestly I reckon it ain’t that we’re letting ourselves be dominated.
Just remember that total GDP for
– USA is $26.85 trillion
– Europe is $21.09 trillion
– China is $19.37 trillion
Do not give into the propaganda campain orgestrated by those that want to undermine Europe.
We are global superpower economically. We are just under the information warfare that likely Russia is giving to us.
DO NOT GIVE IN, WE ARE STRONG!
Well, they’re in good(?) company. Let’s not act as if it isn’t 99% of the globe falling over backwards for Trump.
It’s only China that refuses to budge for him, everyone else plays his game. Even India and Russia try to keep him happy in hope of favourable deals and to be exempt from whatever his latest tantrum is.
Can hardly fault Europe for doing the same, especially as a region traditionally more dependent on the US.
To be clear, I don’t consider this a good thing, but it’s weird to expect Europe of all regions to be at the forefront of facing off with the US.
Europe has been dominated by the US since the end of WW2 lol
lol TBH, think we’re missing the point here.
The problem too with the EU is that neoliberalism is being implemented and allowing human rights in places like Syria be violated. European policy should be value based and instead of giving in on environmental policy and supporting terrorists in the Levant we all should be promoting the UN, ICC & WHO.
This has been going on for like 75 years
EU is a regulatory quality of life superpower. Who even dares to think of dominating us, the museum of the great past!?
Have you been living under a rock for the last 80 years?
There are three economic superpowers that account for much of global trade – the US, China and the EU. No one of them can fight a trade war against both of the others and hope to come out unscathed.
China has been acting progressively more combative for years, so the EU and US would be wise to band together and oppose them, but instead Mr Cheetohdust in DC is fucking with its allies and initiating pointless tariff battles.
Europe is hugely reliant on international trade and exports, when China and the US are pummeling us from both sides there really aren’t many great options.
Europe was dominated by the US since 1944. The Bretton Woods deal was the end of Europe as a collection of sovereign states in any meaningful sense.
Why is this news?
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