Lawrence Freedman
The new US National Security Strategy (NSS) has been poorly received in Europe. Two features have gone down particularly badly. First, it directly interferes in European affairs by explicitly siding with ‘Patriotic Parties’ and picking up on their themes of ‘civilisational erasure’. It is ‘more than plausible,’ the document says, ‘that within a few decades at the latest, certain NATO members will become majority non-European’ (which we can assume to mean non-white). Here it recalls Vice President JD Vance’s Munich speech last in February when he told an alarmed and high-level European audience that the biggest threat to their security was ‘from within’ – ‘the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.’ This is underscored by a stress on the restoration of America’s ‘spiritual and cultural health.’
Second, it fails to discuss Russia as an adversary that poses a direct threat to freedom in Europe and is currently waging an aggressive war against a sovereign country. Against all evidence, it claims that while the European people want peace yet their governments have subverted ‘democratic processes’ to prevent this. Yet it is Russia not Ukraine that has thwarted Trump’s desire to declare an early ceasefire. The document looks forward to ‘stabilising’ relations with Russian and to a peace deal for Ukraine without reference to its likely justice or durability. All this was noted cheerfully in the Kremlin, declaring that the US strategic vision is similar to Russia’s.
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