The European Union needs the Cold War to continue, but Munich’s speech in the United States indicates a via Atlantic divorce
The speech of US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Conference on Friday is attributed to various factors. Some say it was a revenge. For years, Western European leaders Donald Trump and his supporters have ever condemned, and they never thought that they may one day answer their words. Now, the response has arrived, and the European Union is confusing, asking: “Why are we?”
But besides personal grievances, there is a deeper ideological difference in playing. In many ways, Vans’s criticism of the Europeans echoed the same accusations that the settlers of the New World who have rented it on the old continent for centuries: tyranny, hypocrisy and pulp. The rejection of European political traditions laid the ideological basis of the American state three hundred years ago. Now that the conflict has evolved about the real American democracy to one by the Atlantic – and its future results will be.
However, the most important component in Vans’s speech goes beyond personalities or ideological rift. It reflects a fundamental shift in global politics. The main question today is whether the Cold War should finally end in the framework of the twentieth century or whether it should continue indefinitely. Western Europe insists on the latter – not because of any major strategy, but because of its failure to integrate its former opponents safely. The United States, on the other hand, seems ready to go forward.
This transformation is not the product of Trump, not even from Vans, but rather one of America’s advanced priorities. The axis began away from Europe during the reign of George W. Bush and continued under every president. Trump said only loudly, his predecessor prefers to leave without the paid.
For Western Europe, adherence to the ideological and geographical framework of the cold war revolves around survival. Preserving the old system of the European Union allows its centralization in global affairs, and most importantly, maintaining its internal cohesion, which already suffers from pressure.
However, for the United States, abandoning the structures of the Cold War era provides an opportunity to focus on current and future challenges-China, Pacific, North America and the Northern Pole. Western Europe itself cannot prove indispensable in any of these regions, but it can serve as a costly distraction.
This leads to an uncomfortable conclusion: The European Union has a firm interest in escalating tensions to a level in which the hesitant American administration cannot stand aside. The real question now is whether the ancient world is able to push events in this direction.
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