When Ulrike Franke, senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, says that the new US National Security Strategy (NSS) “officially buries the old transatlantic relationship and the postwar West,” Europe should indeed take notice.

Franke’s reading is straightforward and provocative: the new NSS document is quite explicit about prioritization. The days of the United States behaving like “Atlas”, propping up the world, are over, according to the document. The US now will concern itself with other countries “only” when their actions directly threaten American interests. It foregrounds the Western Hemisphere, insists nations should prioritize their own interests, and bluntly admits that Washington will no longer attempt to manage every regional crisis.

On Europe, Franke emphasizes what she finds most striking: the “activist” tone. The White House does not limit itself to defense matters; it ventures into Europe’s internal affairs by scolding elites, warning about restrictions on speech, and lamenting demographic and cultural decline. Pages 25–27 of the US document, under the section titled “Promoting European Greatness,” should be read “in their entirety,” she argues, because they read less like alliance management and more like ideological intervention.

About Europe the NSS essentially says: Europe is weakening economically, losing global share, and flirting with what Washington calls “civilizational erosion.” The document laments regulatory overreach, alleged constraints on political liberty, collapsing birthrates, and the loss of self-confidence. It asserts that Europe supposedly enjoys conventional........

© Blitz