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One minute U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s acting like his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin\u2019s emissary, the next he\u2019s giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a reasonable hearing. | Pool Photo by Will Oliver via EPA<\/p>\nAnd dominating everything is security \u2014 though it\u2019s less a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d and more a \u201ccoalition of the surrounded.\u201d Or, as one German security official, granted anonymity to speak freely, explained: \u201cIf the Americans are now acting as mediators between Russia and Europe, they no longer see themselves as partners within NATO.\u201d<\/p>\n
In practical terms, the U.S. is still the driving force behind the alliance, notionally at least. As another German military figure, also granted anonymity to express their views, put it: \u201cThe harsh truth is that Europe\u2019s readiness level to combat any Russian aggression doesn\u2019t yet exist. Until that time, we are reliant on the U.S. to act as a backstop.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that penny should have dropped last February, when U.S. Vice President JD Vance dropped his various bombshells at the Munich Security Conference, attacking European democracies, praising the far-right Alternative for Germany party and serving notice that the U.S. no longer felt beholden to past allegiances. The real surprise is that anyone\u2019s been surprised by the Trump administration\u2019s actions since then.<\/p>\n
Even now, some are continuing to cling to the hope that this isn\u2019t the united view in Washington, and that others within the administration still wield a certain influence. This isn\u2019t how security planners in Germany or the U.K. see things, but it seems many politicians \u2014 and much of the public \u2014 are yet to be convinced of just how serious the situation has become.<\/p>\n
One minute U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s acting like his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin\u2019s emissary, the next he\u2019s giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a reasonable hearing. | Pool Photo by Will Oliver via EPA<\/p>\n
Their alarm will have been reinforced by the second Trump administration\u2019s first National Security Strategy<\/a>. Published only a few days ago, it condemns many of the liberal values underpinning European democracy, while praising the nativist, nationalist rhetoric<\/a> of the far-right \u2014 and implicitly of Putin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previously, the dominant narrative around Europe was about German reluctance, whether brought about by postwar guilt and pacificism or complacency. But while that has been replaced by a new determination, exactly how deeply is it entrenched?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And dominating everything is security \u2014 though it\u2019s less a \u201ccoalition of the willing\u201d and more a \u201ccoalition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[473,5293,32,34,2000,6562,299,7058,805,30557,1945,1824,70618,807,518,660,28649,2821,332,811,6717,657,15,49,333,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-619204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-diplomacy","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-emmanuel-macron","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-eu27","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european-defense","16":"tag-foreign-policy","17":"tag-frank-walter-steinmeier","18":"tag-friedrich-merz","19":"tag-germany","20":"tag-germany-interpreted","21":"tag-keir-starmer","22":"tag-king-charles-iii","23":"tag-kremlin","24":"tag-national-budgets","25":"tag-nato","26":"tag-russia","27":"tag-security","28":"tag-transatlantic-relations","29":"tag-ukraine","30":"tag-united-kingdom","31":"tag-united-states","32":"tag-vladimir-putin","33":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115681749881483948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}