American Priorities For Ukraine Peace and NATO Security Leave Europeans Shocked In Munich

 

Trump 'stunned, strangled and humiliated' Europe in 3 days — Axios

"The big picture: No amount of "Trump-proofing" could have prepared Europe for the MAGA-shaped hurricane that swept across the continent this week, wreaking torrential havoc on America's closest allies."

"Good! You people in the EU are crazy and would get us all killed." - Americans 

▪️The last three days have "exceeded the worst nightmares" of EU politicians, with the US president bypassed Europe, leaving America's closest continental allies stunned and dumbfounded.

▪️Trump began direct peace talks with Russia, Ukraine was not fully aware of the events, and other EU leaders were not even involved in the conversation.

▪️Also during his first visit to NATO headquarters, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth raised eyebrows and anger among allies by saying:

No NATO membership for Ukraine. That is not a "realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement," Hegseth said.

U.S. troops will not be deployed to Ukraine to enforce postwar security guarantees 

Any European peacekeepers sent to Ukraine should be deployed as part of a "non-NATO mission," meaning Article 5 and by default the US military, will not protect them.

▪️ He also said Europe must take responsibility for its own security so the U.S. can focus on the greater threat from China, and that the US will not enforce no-fly zones over Ukraine.

▪️ In addition to the political statements, Trump announced the introduction of "retaliatory" tariffs against every country that imposes import duties on the US, which will likely affect $600 billion worth of EU goods.

▪️Vice President JD Vance struck a particularly personal note in his speech at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, noting that his biggest concern is not Russia, China or other outside powers.

“I am concerned about the threat that comes from within,” Vance said. “It is the retreat of Europe from some of the core values ​​that it shares with the United States.”

▪️Vance subsequently met with the head of the Alternative for Germany party, becoming the first high-ranking US official to do so, and did not meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz is not expected to be in that office long, as Friedrich Merz is the frontrunner in the upcoming election.

▪️The US actions taken together represent a 180-degree shift in US foreign policy toward Europe and the wider world. The United States is acknowledging the end of the post-WWII hegemony and Cold War era security architecture. 

The post-WWII to end of Soviet Union era was the era of the Anglo-American, where the moniker "the collective West" began to describe the global power duo of America (the hegemon) and the UK (the empire), along with the Empire's Commonwealth possessions, and the NATO allies. The UK itself being a declining empire underwent many changes during this time (a topic for another blog) and by the end of the 1980s, when the Soviet Union ended, there was only one great power in the world, the hegemon, the United States. 

Hegemonic status is not enduring, at least not without military force (looking at you, Rome).

Therefore, unless willing to engage in global wars of power against strong military and economic rising nations (we were not) the hegemonic status was bound to end. Some pin the "beginning of the end" as starting at 2010 with 0bama's policies. Others pin it to 2020 when Biden took over, others to 2022 with the collective west's global sanctions on all things Russian. 

One can also pin "the beginning of the end" of the hegemony to the late 1990s/early 2000s, when US policymakers started the continuous, slowly-accelerating draining of the American economy brought about by continuous wars draining trillions in resources; over-emphasis on environmental regulation which drove industry offshore; offshoring of labor and technology; inflationary economic and monetary policies; vast wealth redistribution out of the US through deliberately lopsided trade and migration policies; international agreements that disadvantaged the US; and decades of military and soft power projection by the US which provided no direct benefit to the US or its citizens. 

Sanctions policies begun in 2022, meant to provoke regime change in Russia, turned a former weak alliance, the BRICS , into a major global power almost overnight, providing Russia with new, cooperative economic partners, chasing many countries away from the dollar, encouraging a new trade currency in BRICS , threatening a shift of oil and gas supply power into BRICS leaving the United States behind, shifting petroleum products trade away from the petrodollar and threatening the dollar's reserve currency status. 

Now, in 2025, there are several power blocs. Globally, these are China, Russia and the United States.  

Europe has ceased to be the power bloc it was; the British Empire is a last-century memory. Countries in the Global South like Brazil, India, and Argentina now have booming economies and wield regional power. Countries in EMEA like UAE and Saudi Arabia likewise have stable, growing economies and wield regional power. 

This is the reality in 2025. One can either face it, or dissolve into irrelevancy. 

Rather than dissolve into irrelevancy, the United States is playing the realpolitik of the new multipolarity, telling Europe to look after itself and to manage its relationships throughout the continent, including their larger neighbor to the east, Russia, which the US sees as neither a great nor imminent danger to European nations. 

It is hard to imagine that this could have been such a surprise to the Europeans. After all, the writing has literally been on the wall for over a decade. Russian President Putin himself made comments like this in 2008 at the Munich Security Conference. These comments are mild by today's standards, but were revolutionary at the time and infuriated both European and American attendees. However, in the intervening years, article after article spoke of the end of the unipolar moment and need to address future relations with emerging powers.  

But it also is predictable that Europeans would not welcome this kind of change. Europeans have particularly benefited from the unipolar moment via enormous defense support and preferential trade deals with the US. Their societies have grown accustomed to extra money and have created large social benefit networks. European economies are likely to restructure their economies soon, because of the reality of having to spend more on defense (five percent for each NATO member), increasing energy costs, and rapidly declining industrial and manufacturing capabilities. Europe also has many of the same issues as the United States with mass immigration, both legal and illegal. These challenges will have to be met head-on with difficult policy decisions if they are to retain their coherence as first world economies and societies.